Captain Beckett: Cerberus Spectre
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: Two years after the Battle of the Citadel and an attempt upon her life, Captain Beckett must team up with an unlikely ally to continue the fight against the Reaper threat.
1. Knockout At Amada

**Chapter One  
Knockout At Amada**

* * *

" _I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant_

 _and fill him with a terrible resolve..."_  
Unsubstantiated quote attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto  
after the Pearl Harbor attack

* * *

 **Several weeks after the Battle of the Citadel**

The red super-giant Anadius was a minor footnote on the star maps of the Horsehead Nebula: a cold, dying star of about twenty solar masses and fifteen hundred times Sol's radius. There were only three objects larger than an asteroid clustered in the slowly burning out star. The first was a gas giant only slightly smaller than Jupiter just inside the outer rim of the system's oort cloud with several core discharge anchorages and Helium 3 processing plants carefully and skillfully hidden in its rings.

The second was a small planet who's orbit sat squarely within the so called "sweet spot" to produce a garden world, though now little more than a frozen, burned out cinder and not due to Anadius' decline, either. The planet bore the scars of orbital mass driver bombardment, its former inhabitants a long forgotten victim of the reapers. Their civilization wiped out before mammals had supplanted the dinosaurs on Earth, by the carbon dating of the few remaining ruins on the surface.

The third was an unobtrusive, heavily shielded space station floating in geosynchronous orbit of the star roughly halfway between the dead world and the star's corona. Not listed on any charts, its existence in the inner reaches of the system was imperceptible to sensor sweeps of the cluster due to the star's periodic bursts of solar output. Though it didn't appear to be much more than a smuggler's outpost to look at it, the station bore enough docking hard-points for multiple large and small vessels and was was lavishly appointed on the inside. The perfect place to hide from the prying eyes of the Citadel Council and the Terran Systems Alliance from which it's builders sprang.

This was Cronos Station, the secret headquarters of Cerberus.

In the primary office of Cerberus' founder, Mason Wood, known more widely to the galaxy-at-large as _"The Illusive Man"_. Since publishing an anonymous manifesto shortly after the Contact War warning that an alien attempt at human genocide was inevitable. His manifesto had called for an army - a Cerberus - to guard against invasion through the Charon relay and he had spent the last quarter century slowly building it. Soon, he believed, his efforts – many of which had caused Cerberus to be branded a terrorist and seditionist organization by authorities – would be vindicated.

As he sat in his chair in the center of a room covered on all sides by a holo-projected display of the red super-giant where he would often contemplate the universe and his place in it, a woman in her mid-thirties named Miranda Lawson turned from the display.

"Captain Beckett did everything right," she stated flatly, her disgust with the Citadel Council clearly evident, "more than we could have hoped for - saving the Citadel, even saving the council! Humanity has the trust of nearly the entire galaxy and _still_ it's not enough to get the three of them in their ivory tower to listen!"

"We're at war," Wood agreed, "no one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack"

Wood continued to contemplate the supernova, considering his next words with great care. Miranda Lawson was a driven woman, but much more of an idealist than he had ever been. She was a true believer, willing to overlook many of Cerberus' sins to bring about its more laudable goals, one of the few he had recruited who wasn't a xenophobe.

She was one of his best agents- if not _the_ best in his employ - but the one he also kept the most often at arm's length. Though she was beautiful by every human standard available and clearly his type, he had no intention of letting her get that close to him. She was far too intelligent and perceptive for him to keep in the dark for long under such close scrutiny. The very things that made her one of his most successful agents also made her dangerous to him and Cerberus as a whole. He could not risk her disillusionment with the organization that would follow if he let her any deeper into his inner circle, something she would invariably seek should they become intimate. She was too valuable an asset, both as an agent of Cerberus and as a bargaining chip with her father, Henry Lawson.

Were she ever to discover that he still had dealings with the abusive father she had fled from, or that the very project that had led to both her and her younger sister's creation as well as her extensive genetic tailoring had come from Cerberus labs on this very station and elsewhere, her reprisal would be predictably direct and highly destructive. She would lose of course, but even in defeat she could set Cerberus' long term goals back decades.

"Our sacrifices have earned the council's gratitude," he replied coolly, "but Captain Beckett, herself remains our best hope."

Miranda strode closer, the skin-tight jumpsuit she favored accentuating every curve and movement of her genetically perfect body, her ire unabated.

"But they're sending her to fight geth!" she spat, her Australian accent growing thicker as she gave vent to her rage. "Geth! We both know they're not the real threat. The Reapers are still out there in force."

"True," Wood agreed, after taking a drag of his cigarette followed by a sip of his expensive Kentucky Bourbon, "which means it will be up to us to stop them."

Miranda paced, every muscle in her genetically perfect body a riot of tension. She had little time for fools, nor did she suffer them gladly and the council were the galaxy's biggest fools as far as she was concerned.

"The Council will never trust Cerberus, we've been disavowed as a terrorist organization even by our own government," she replied, sounding a bit more contrite. "Even after everything humanity has accomplished, they'll never accept our help. But Beckett? They'll follow her. She's a hero, a bloody icon, but she's only one woman, if we were to lose her humanity might well follow."

Mason Wood put out his cigarette and waved his now empty fingers in the air in front of his chair, calling up a small haptic interface as he checked assets and possible locations, barely glancing at the information at his disposal before replying.

"Then see to it that we don't lose her."

* * *

Six months after the devastating attack on the Citadel, the galactic community has struggled to rebuild. The Alliance Fleet made a tremendous sacrifice to save the Citadel Council which earned humanity membership in their prestigious group. They were forced to respond to evidence that the Reapers - enormous machines that eradicate all organic civilization every fifty thousand years – not only exist, but seek to return to to the inhabited regions of the galaxy.

To quell the rumors, the Council has sent Captain Beckett and the crew of SSV Normandy to wipe out any pockets of geth resistance in accordance with the official stance they and their leader, the rogue Spectre, Saren Arterius were solely responsible for the attack.

But for those who knew the truth, the search for answers had only just begun.

* * *

 **Amada System, in the Omega Nebula**

SSV Normandy burst out of FTL in the Amada system within visual range of the planet Alchera. As her wings slowly unfolded, her heat sinks became active and her heat signature began to dwindle until it was no longer distinguishable from the empty space around her then began a slow search pattern of the system with passive LIDAR scans.

"Secured from FTL, IES system engaged, emission sinks active," Flight Lt. Kevin Ryan reported from the Normandy's cockpit. "Board is green, we are running silent."

"We're wasting our time," XO Pressly grumbled through the intercom whilst checking the young ensign's work at the LIDAR console. "Four days searching every system in this sector and there _still_ isn't any sign of geth activity."

"Three ships went missing in this cluster in the last month," Ryan replied without any real conviction. "Something happened to 'em."

"My money's on slavers," Pressly replied, his eyes scanning the CIC, crew training was the XO's job, milk run or not. "The Terminus Systems are crawling with 'em."

The stops in every system in the cluster had become routine almost to the point of boredom. Nobody on the ship - from Captain Beckett down to the lowliest rating - doubted for a moment that it was a

milk run to remove them from the public eye while the non-human members of the Council sought to distance themselves from the truth of the Reaper threat. Captain Beckett rarely turned up in the CIC, content to leave the day-to-day operations to XO Pressly. It was public knowledge aboard ship that he was being groomed for his own command and that this would be his last tour aboard.

His actions as nominal commander of the Normandy during the Battle of the Citadel had garnered him the attention of the Alliance brass and word had come down that when the new SSV Thermopylae finished construction and was ready for shakedown he would be in the Captain's seat.

Lt. Commander Esposito had transferred out and returned to the CID before Normandy had departed Alliance space, leaving First Lt. Castle as the next in line for XO, a position that Captain Beckett was clearly more interested in grooming him for. In fact, she was grooming him for it a lot lately in her quarters (another of the ship's open secrets).

Shortly before he resigned his commission to take his place as the human representative to the Citadel Council, Captain Roy Montgomery had personally conducted their wedding in the Normandy's CIC.

Though it was generally frowned upon for a Captain and XO to be intimate, not to mention married to each other, Captain Beckett's Council Spectre status rendered her an exception, one that Alliance High Command had not been terribly happy about. Likely another reason the Normandy had been sent to the ass end of nowhere searching for heretofore non-existent geth.

"Picking up something on the long range sensors," the young ensign at the LIDAR console called out, "unknown configuration, size indicates a cruiser."

"Doesn't match any known signatures," Ryan added.

"Cruiser is changing course," the ensign reported, "now on an intercept trajectory."

"Can't be, Stealth systems are engaged," Pressly replied, covering the distance to the LIDAR console in four long strides to look over the ensign's shoulder, "There's no way a geth ship could possibly..."

As the alien looking cruiser closed the range with the Normandy, the main gun at the center of its hull powered up.

"It's not the geth!" Ryan exclaimed as he engaged the manual override on the helm just as the unknown vessel locked them on target. "Brace for evasive maneuvers!"

Ryan's "Crazy Ivan" maneuvers dodged the opening salvo of the hostile ship's strange energy beam weapon, but only briefly, before the massive cruiser found the range and swept around. The next round of fire connected, and sheared the Normandy's starboard wing in half just inboard of the number four engine.

In the CIC, the primary LIDAR console exploded in Pressly's face, killing him and the young ensign seated in front of him instantly. As ranking officer on the deck, Ryan took over without skipping a beat.

"Kinetic barriers out, multiple hull breaches, weapons offline, somebody get that fire out!" he shouted all while trying to get the wounded Normandy's helm to answer properly with half of the maneuvering thrusters out.

* * *

The enemy cruiser fired again and again, hammering at the Normandy, cutting through her armor and the hull beneath it like a hot knife through butter. The next salvo knocked out the Tantalus drive core and the FTL drive, then targeted the dorsal hull and opened fire, breaching the CIC and opening the deck to space, killing everyone inside, leaving Ryan trapped behind the emergency barriers in the flying bridge, struggling to keep the Normandy alive.

Down on the crew deck, Kate brought the emergency command console online and primed the distress beacon for launch before giving the abandon ship order. Shortly afterward the Normandy's VI began to drone.

" _Abandon ship, Abandon ship. All hands report to the escape pods."_

"Ryan's still in the cockpit," Castle reported. "He's refusing to evacuate."

"I'm not leaving either," Liara T'Soni stated from behind them.

"Get to the damn escape pods, T'Soni!" Kate commanded, "Castle and I will haul Ryan's crippled ass out of here! Go!"

Liara nodded and turned to run down the corridor. Outside the ship, a section of the hull's armor plate popped open and slid down, revealing the escape pod launch cradles and one by one each of the seven port side pods ejected and their thrusters powered them clear of the ship. The enemy vessel ignored them and continued to fire on the dying hulk of SSV Normandy, as Castle and Beckett sealed their combat armor and breathing helmets and began climbing the stairs they could hear him sending the distress call.

"Mayday, mayday, this is SSV Normandy, we are under attack by an unidentified vessel, taking heavy damage!"

The two of them engaged their mag boots, Castle overrode the door and they stepped out into the shattered CIC, the gaping hole where the dorsal hull had once been giving them an unobstructed view of Alchera moving inexorably closer in spite of Ryan's vain efforts to correct her course. Once they passed through the emergency barrier keeping the atmosphere in the cockpit, they could see Ryan's hands flying over the controls, muttering quietly to the ship as if begging it not to succumb to the horrible punishment being dished out by the cruiser, which had momentarily ceased fire.

"Come on, Ryan," Castle shouted, "we need to get out of here!"

"No!" Ryan shouted, his eyes flashing on a nightmare only he can see, the fires burning on a different ship in a different time, "I won't abandon her... not this time! I can still save her!"

"The Normandy's dead!" Kate shouted, trying to bring Ryan back to the moment. "Just like we will be if we don't get the hell out of here!"

"No... we just have to..." Ryan countered, his conviction unwavering until a small screen pinged for his attention. "Oh, no."

"What is it?" Castle asked.

"They're wheeling around for another attack run," Ryan replied like an oracle proclaiming their doom.

The alien cruiser slowly swung it's bow around until its main gun was once again lined up with the fatally crippled Normandy and opened fire, scoring critical hits to the already buckled hull plates just aft of the CIC, setting off a chain reaction of secondary explosions throughout the ship. It's second salvo again penetrated the hull to burn though hull armor and deck plates perilously close to the primary torpedo magazine. With most of the internal hull struts compromised, there was no chance that she would survive when they detonated.

Without preamble, Kate turned and hauled Ryan out of the pilot's seat, manhandling him toward the hatch for the flying bridge escape pod.

"Arrgh!" Ryan shouted as Castle joined her, taking some of the load. "Watch the knee!"

They had just managed to get Ryan into the pod before a series of secondary explosions wracked the ship as one by one, the torpedo warheads in the magazine reached critical mass and exploded.

Castle was thrown into the pod, but Kate was dragged into the opposite direction when her mag boots failed. He reached for her, his fingers lightly brushing hers before the next explosion flash decompressed the cockpit and she was dragged out of reach before he could close his hand around hers.

Just before she was blown clear of the CIC, she managed to hit the override to the pod and the door cycled closed.

"Kate!" Castle screamed and pounded on the airlock door as the pod launched. "Kate! NO!"

Shortly after the escape pod blasted clear, the last of the Normandy's torpedoes exploded and the ship began to break apart, which Kate watched with morbid fascination as she floated clear. Until the air hose regulators on the back of her suit gave way, taking her air with them.

She struggled and twisted as she tried in vain to reach the damaged regulator, but by the time the suit seals clamped down she was left with only the few gasps of air left inside her helmet, began to feel the effects of oxygen deprivation and her vision began to tunnel and gray out.

The last thing she heard before everything went black was the voice of her husband which made her smile weakly in spite of herself.

 _"Kate! I love you. I love you Kate!"_

* * *

 **Three Weeks Later**

In another quiet backwater system floated another nondescript space station where no space station had any right to be, Miranda Lawson sat at her desk in a spartan office, read the manifest of the latest transport to visit her research outpost, then activated the quantum entanglement communicator to give her report to the Illusive man.

"Captain Beckett has been recovered. The Lazarus Project will proceed as planned."

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** My fellow Mass Effect fans know precisely where this is going. For my fellow Castle fans who are shaking their heads or forming ranks with pitchforks and torches, my only defense is in the title, "Knockout." We all know what comes next, and yes the next one will contain the word "Rise". Bear with me.**_

 _ **In case the references were not enough, today is December 7th. On this date on a sunny Sunday morning in 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a devastating air attack on the US Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor.**_

 _ **Honor the Fallen.**_


	2. Rise

**Chapter Two  
Rise**

* * *

 _I'm gonna wake up, yes and no  
I'm gonna kiss some part of  
I'm gonna keep this secret  
I'm gonna close my body now  
_Madonna: "Die Another Day"

* * *

 **Two Years Later**

Time can be funny when one is drifting in and out of the world, dreams and visions become reality. Kate Beckett wasn't sure when the blackness she'd drifted into after she'd been thrown clear of the Normandy wreckage and her air ran out had begun to release its grip. The blackness was still there, but had become punctuated by half-heard voices antiseptic smells and the feeling of being weighed down, a dull throb in her chest where some part of her was sure pain should be. But her eyes opened and though hazy, her vision began to clear.

"Miranda," a woman's voice stated from out of her field of vision, "she's reacting to outside stimuli, showing awareness of her surroundings, she's waking up."

Suddenly a woman's face appeared in her field of vision, red hair tied back in a severe bun, eyes cold as ice, before a second woman dark haired, equally severe but her pale blue eyes radiated something more compassionate.

"Dammit, Nieman, she isn't ready yet," the dark haired woman snapped, clearly in charge of the situation,"give her the sedative!"

The dark-haired woman gently clasped the hand Kate managed to work free and tried to calm the flight or fight response taking hold as her heart-rate climbed. Kate had heard the word "sedative" though and struggled even harder to free herself from the rest of the medical restraints.

"Captain Beckett, don't try to move," the dark haired woman soothed, trying to keep eye contact with her "just lie still, try to stay calm."

" _No_!" a voice in the back of Kate's head commanded, " _you have to get up! You have to get free, have to find Castle!_ " She continued to fight and struggle in barely controlled panic, but she couldn't seem to move, her arms and legs responded like lead weights encased in putty... useless... sending her spiraling further.

"Heart rate still climbing," the redhead - Dr. Nieman, she thought she'd heard the dark haired woman... Miranda… call her - stated coldly, "brain activity is off the charts."

"Captain Beckett," Miranda continued to soothe, "you're safe here, please try to stay calm, everything will be all right."

"Stats pushing into the red zone," Dr. Nieman reported, "it's not working!"

"Another dose," the dark haired woman... Miranda ...yes that was her name... commanded. "Now."

Suddenly the warm feeling of _"the good drugs"_ flooded Kate's bloodstream and took the edge off her fear, her vision began to gray out and a soft, comforting haze slowly fell over everything.

"Heart-rate dropping, stats falling back into the normal range." Nieman echoed softly as Kate began to drift out. "That was too close, we almost lost her."

"I told you your estimates were off," Miranda snapped. "Run the numbers again."

The last thing Kate saw before the gray haze once again gave way to the black was Miranda's face, her pale blue eyes radiating calm. Reminding her of the blue eyes of her husband as she slipped away, a soft smile on her lips as more pleasant memories of his touch drifted up to greet her.

* * *

 **Sixteen Days Later**

"Captain Beckett, wake up!" a familiar sounding voice shouted over a speaker, followed by a rumble that sounded like thunder which shook and rattled instruments on the table nearby.

"Captain Beckett, do you hear me?" the woman's voice asked. "I need you to get out of that bed, you're in grave danger!"

The room shook again forcing Kate to slowly shake off the cobwebs and and sat up.

"Captain, your scars aren't fully healed, but I need you to get moving!" the voice urged again. "This facility is under attack!"

When those words hit Kate's ears, she tugged the IV needle out of her arm and groaned as she rose from the hospital bed in her bare feet and set of clean hospital scrubs. For the first time hearing automatic and heavy weapons fire, the rumble of explosions and the screams of wounded and dying people. It didn't take long for the fog to lift and her instincts to kick in. Her first thought was that she couldn't walk in what amounted to pajamas.

"There are clothes and a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room," the voice urged, apparently as aware of her needs as Kate was. "Hurry!"

Kate swung her head to the right and left until she spied the locker in question in the far corner from her bedside and padded in her bare feet to it, finding the promised clothing and pistol as well as a complete set of N-7 grade tactical armor. She looked warily around again, not sure she wanted to see the scars the voice had warned her about.

"You don't have time to wait around, Captain!" the voice admonished in her ear, galvanizing her into action as she stripped off the scrubs and put on undergarments followed swiftly by the military style uniform tailored to fit her, but colored black with orange trim instead of Alliance blue and white. Once fully dressed, she slipped into a pair of boots with a sturdy four inch heel – she'd been unaware it was even possible for such boots to be rated for all environment combat gear - and put on the combat hard-suit, testing the fit and checking her joints for freedom of movement. Last but certainly not least she checked the pistol, a Carnifax hand cannon dialed in to her preferred specifications. Whomever her mysterious benefactors were, they'd certainly done their homework.

"This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip," Kate noted out loud, feeling a bit strange speaking to a disembodied voice.

"There's an arms locker just outside med bay," the voice replied, then the sound of weapons fire. "Damn it!"

"Somebody's hacked the security mechs trying to kill you." the woman explained. "You need to get to that arms locker and get a thermal clip for your weapon."

Kate moved quickly and quietly through the door out of med bay and spied the arms locker. With a touch of her hand the door opened, clearly keyed to her biometrics. All of the weapons were gone, but she grabbed a pouch of thermal clips and affixed it to her belt then grabbed a loose one from the locker and slapped it home in her pistol. For the first time since waking up to this nightmare she felt better now that she was at least able to respond with more than course language should anything hostile cross her path.

* * *

 **Lazarus Station  
Security Server Room B**

Dr. Kelly Nieman sat at the terminal in the locked server room. Her security level as the Stations Chief of Medicine for Project Lazarus granted her full access to all systems. With the project nearing completion as an unqualified success, she felt it was time she collect the payment she was due. She had kept very careful, precise notes on every aspect of the project to bring Captain Kate Beckett back from the dead. The project had gone over budget twice in the last two years, but The Illusive man behind Cerberus had simply transferred more credits.

She had been careful to keep her connection to one of the most prolific serial killers in the twenty second century out of any and all records, which was quite the feat in modern society, though much easier since he had spent much of the last decade in suspended animation at a very upscale hospital on Elysium under the pseudonym Michael Boudreau.

With the careful notes she'd kept on the project – not to mention samples of Captain Beckett's DNA taken before and after each phase of the project - and the right laboratory setup, she was certain she could streamline the process for a more limited budget. It would help that his body was not nearly as heavily damaged as Beckett's was. Soon, her lover could be brought back from the brink of death. His body had been kept in all this time by the most modern techniques available to medical science, but soon he would be free to live and kill again.

She would have her lover restored to her and as an added bonus take revenge on the woman who'd shot him back on earth and left him for dead, her husband left to suffer, wallowing in his guilt that he couldn't save her. She took pleasure in the near perfect symmetry of it all. It was a shame really, Kate Beckett had a truly lovely face, such perfect cheekbones and nearly flawless skin, much like her genetically perfect benefactor.

Genetically, Miranda Lawson had been engineered to flawless perfection, but she, too was becoming a vexingly burdensome problem, one that would have to be dealt with. As much of a shame she thought it would be to destroy such a perfect example of human engineering perfection, Nieman could not allow Miranda to foil her plans by saving Beckett. This station and everyone on it needed to disappear, - preferably from a reactor core breach - to destroy any evidence of her betrayal and keep Cerberus from discovering her machinations. To that end, she disabled the station's primary communications array, jammed the internal comms and sent the bulk of the heavy YMR security mechs to D-wing to finish off Director Lawson. There could be only one "Lazarus" and she was determined that it would be Jerry Tyson.

* * *

It hadn't taken long for Kate to run into the errant security mechs Miranda had warned her about, a squad of the humanoid appearing LOKI class sentry mechs turned in her direction and immediately opened fire on her. She fired a quick burst with her pistol as she dove for cover, hitting one squarely on its forehead cowling - blowing its head apart - and destroying the gun hand of another.

"Allied force casualty," one of the other mechs stated in a cold mechanical tone, "additional units..."

Kate popped up from cover and hit it with a five round burst before it could finish the query, feeling a significant level of satisfaction when its head promptly exploded.

"Please reconsider your aggressive actions," the next mech's prerecorded statement declared as the remaining four mechs opened up on her with heavy pistol and sub-machine gun fire.

"Captain Beckett," Miranda offered over the comms, "we noted your untapped biotic potential while reconstructing your neural pathways and made the needed modifications to enhance that potential, granting you limited biotic abilities. Concentrate on the nearest mech and sweep with your left hand."

Kate did as instructed and swept her left hand and was rewarded when the nearest mech was lifted from the deck and sent crashing into two of the others. She dispatched the fourth with a quick burst then put a few rounds into the other three just to be sure and took stock of her handiwork as she swapped out her overheated thermal clip for a fresh one.

"Nice work Captain, the coast is clear for now," Miranda stated into her headset. "But don't waste too much time patting yourself on the back, there's reinforcements on the way and I can't keep the heavy mechs distracted for long. Take the elevator down one floor and follow the yellow arrows, they will lead you to the shuttle bay on the other side of the station."

Kate took the open carriage freight elevator down a level and followed the yellow arrows on the floor as indicated, horrified at the number of dead bodies she passed along the way. Most of them were unarmed, a few clearly still dressed for bed or for an exercise run. Many of them shot in either the head or chest with small arms, and though a few were contorted by the effects of exploding heavy rounds in a confined space.

"Your doing... Captain... Head to the... meet you..." Miranda's voice cut in and out as the comms began breaking up and her words became increasingly lost in static, "Beckett, can... read me? I've got... closing in... position..."

The last thing Kate heard from Miranda's end before the comms went down completely was the sound of heavy weapons fire.

* * *

Miranda Lawson was supremely pissed off.

Somebody with top level security clearance on Lazarus Station was trying to sabotage her project, the most ambitious undertaking The Illusive Man had ever asked of her and she had a pretty good idea whom that might be. Dr. Nieman was the only person on the station whom she hadn't vetted personally who both had the clearance to the station's computer servers server _and_ had enough access to Project Lazarus to know how close they were to completion. She'd be damned if she was gonna let that creepy, squirrelly bottle redheaded bitch destroy two years of hard work.

Miranda hit the lead YMR mech with overload to take down its barriers then lifted it completely off the deck with her biotics to send it crashing into the other three as if they were bowling pins - reminiscent of what she'd walked Beckett through only minutes before, but on a much larger scale.

She brought up her M-4 Shuriken Machine Pistol and pumped a full burst into the head of the YMR she'd sent flying as it began to right itself, causing it to explode. The subsequent systems overload triggered the detonation of its mass effect core, reducing it and the three others it was still tangled with into twisted scrap metal.

Miranda Lawson might look like a cross between an exotic dancer and a teenage boy's juvenile fantasy of a science fiction heroine, but she was a highly intelligent, dangerous woman to cross. Kelly Nieman had no idea whom she was messing with. She swore to herself that even if she had to personally dismantle every mech between between D wing and the shuttle bay by hand, she was damned well getting herself and Captain Beckett off this station alive.

Should she happen to run into Dr. Kelly Nieman on the way and time permitted, she'd make it a point to tear out her errant chief medical officer's spine and beat her to death with it.

* * *

Kate Beckett moved quickly and quietly through the empty corridor passing more dead bodies along the way. Clearly the mechs were employing a corridor by corridor grid grid search and had recently passed through this way. She could hear the sounds of small arms and heavy weapons fire in the nearby corridors. The screams of the injured and the silence of the dead.

The arrows she was following had led her down two stairwells and several access corridors until she reached her current location. In the next room, she could hear small arms fire as well as angry, panicked shouts.

"Dammit! I wasn't trained for this!" Vikram Singh swore, breaking cover to fire wildly before taking cover again. 'Sign on with Cerberus,' she said, 'it'll be great,' she said. Put all that computer and tech knowledge of yours to work and pay off all those student loans at the same time. Miranda sure as _hell_ never said anything about this!"

He activated his omni-tool and targeted the nearest two mechs with an EMP pulse, fusing the systems of one and scrambling the targeting subroutines of the other. Vikram keyed another sequence on his omni-tool to release a nano-virus that hacked into the damaged mech and realigned its friend or foe acknowledgment system. The targeted mech turned and opened fire on its fellow mechs, taking out two more before it suffered catastrophic system overload and exploded.

"Yes!" he hissed to himself, Kate was certain that a fist pump likely took place, though she couldn't get a good look at the man from her position in the doorway before another spray of automatic weapons fire spattered his hiding place, eliciting another muttered curse.

Kate opened fire, knocking out the last two remaining mechs harassing the beleaguered computer tech.

"Captain Beckett?" Vikram choked out when the firing stopped. "What are you doing here? Miranda said you were still a work in progress."

"Look, pal, I don't know where I am or how I got here, plus my head feels like an overripe melon ready to split open. How about you fill me in a little?"

"Damn," Vikram muttered, "things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. This must be all new to you. Sorry about that. Name's Vikram Singh, computer systems analyst. I'll fill you in as best I can, but we should probably get to the shuttle bay evac point first."

"I know this might not be the best time," Kate snapped, "but I'm tired of stumbling around when I don't know what's going on."

"Fair enough," Vikram shrugged, "I'll give you the quick version. Your ship was attacked and destroyed. You were killed. Dead as dead can be when they brought you here. Miranda's team of scientists spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose or worse the entire time. Welcome back to your life."

"This doesn't look like an Alliance facility." Kate asked, a little dumbstruck.

"It isn't," Vikram replied, "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say much more than that for now. The Alliance officially declared you killed in action. The whole galaxy thinks you're dead. If we don't get to the shuttle bay they may end up being right."

"Were there any other survivors from the Normandy?" Kate asked, her eyes pleading, though Vikram seemed oblivious to the name she was really fishing for. He took in a breath to answer her, but was interrupted when the door at the opposite end of the corridor snapped open and a squad of mechs walked in.

"Hostile forces detected," the lead mech's prerecorded statement declared coldly before they opened fire, sending Vikram and Kate ducking for cover yet again.

"Tell you what?," Vikram offered snarkily. "You get us clear of these mechs and I'll play twenty questions with you all the way to the shuttle bay."

Without skipping a beat, Kate nodded and with barely a glance in the mechs' direction, opened fire with her pistol, critically disabling the first mech in line then sweeping the second aside with her newly discovered biotic powers, sending it crashing into the others then slammed them all into the nearest wall, where they promptly exploded, leaving shattered mech parts scattered about the deck.

"Sounds like the best offer I've had in the last couple hours," Kate quipped.

"Show off," Vikram replied, earning an eye roll from Kate. "Okay, I promised to answer your questions. What do you want to know?"

"The last thing I remember was the Normandy breaking up," Kate said, but she wasn't about to tell this stranger that the very last thing she recalled was Castle telling her he loved her... twice. That was _personal_ and none of this fucking new guy's business, but she had to know that Castle survived. "Did anyone else make it?"

"Just about everybody," Vikram replied, "XO Pressly and the low watch were killed either in the first salvo or when the CIC was hulled. A few of the servicemen in the lower levels didn't get out. Other than that, everyone else, including the non-alliance crew members, survived."

Though Kate silently mourned for her XO, and the members of her crew who'd perished, it eased her mind a little that Castle and her alien volunteers had made it out alive. Though she kept her true feelings well hidden, inside she felt like crying. As long as Castle was still alive there was a chance to make things right.

"Do you..." Kate breathed, then stopped and started again. "Do you know what any of them are doing now?" She wanted to ask about her husband by name, but she was afraid of what he might tell her. For the last two years she had been... _dead._ Had he mourned her and moved on? Had he fallen victim to the same demons that had taken her father from her too after her mother died? What about his daughter? She choked those questions back because she wasn't sure she could handle what the answers to them might be.

"I don't know, Captain," Vikram replied, "It's been two years. Most of the crew were reassigned and moved on. The aliens left Alliance service and your husband dropped completely off the grid shortly after returning to duty a year and a half ago. They could be anywhere."

"They were _my_ team," Kate implored, "if they know I'm alive, they'll come back."

"Maybe you can track them down after we get off this station," Vikram replied, then his voice got quiet, "if we get off the station."

"You said they spent two years rebuilding me." Kate asked. "Exactly how bad were my injuries?"

"I'm no doctor, but it was _really_ bad," Vikram shuddered a little at the thought. "First time I saw you, you were little more than meat and tubes in a cryo tube. Anywhere else, they would have shipped you home in a flag draped coffin and informed your next of kin, but Project Lazarus was different. Cutting edge technology."

"What can you tell me about the project?" Kate asked, "Were there any other test subjects?"

"Project Lazarus had only _one_ subject," Vikram replied. "Just you. That alone was a major challenge. The best scientists and the best technology money could buy... and believe me, this project was incredibly well-funded."

"What do you mean?' Kate choked out incredulously, doing her best to take in the scope of the effort to bring her back. "Cloning? Cybernetics?"

"I don't know the details," Vikram offered, "you'd have to ask Miranda, or Doc Nieman, but I'm pretty sure you're not a clone. They wanted to bring you back _exactly_ as you were. You're still... you... but you might have a few extra bits and pieces now."

"When I first woke up," Kate said, "somebody who called herself Miranda... was talking to me over the comms, we got cut off right before I ran into you."

"That would be Miranda Lawson, the station's ranking officer," Vikram responded. "She's the team lead for Project Lazarus. I'm not surprised she tried to save you, it was her job to bring you back to life, no matter what and when she's given a job to do, she doesn't back down until she finishes it. She's spent the last two years putting you back together. she wasn't about to give up on you now."

"Do you know anything about this attack?" Kate asked, burying her feelings deep as she began interrogating Vikram in earnest. "Who's behind it or what they're after?"

She didn't know a damn thing about Vikram Singh - even less about Miranda or Doctor Nieman. She certainly wasn't sure she could _trust_ any of them. There was a swirl of contradictions swirling around Vikram and this attack. He'd demonstrated enough advanced technical skill to hack the mechs, though he didn't seem quite incompetent enough to get caught in the backlash of this mess if he'd been the one to set it off. As a trained investigator, she could tell that his body language was off. There was something he wasn't telling her, something he was holding back.

"Damned if I know," Vikram replied, suddenly distinctly uncomfortable at being put to the question under Kate's direct scrutiny. "I was on my way to my quarters after collating the biometric data from your most recent scans... then _BAM_ everything started going to hell. Every security mech went active and started shooting! I'm no soldier, this was the first time I'd fired a gun outside of the practice range."

"And?" Kate prompted.

"If I had to guess," Vikram replied with a shrug, "it had to be an inside job. Whoever did this would need top level security clearance to access the secure server and re-write the friend or foe designation software on all of the mechs. I would know, I _wrote_ most of those subroutines, did my damnedest to make them hard to crack. Didn't expect to have my own handiwork turned on me though."

"What's the quickest way to those shuttles?" Kate asked, her voice softening a little.

"That depends on where the mechs are, but we..." Vikram began, but was cut off by the comms.

"Hello... is there anyone on this frequency?" a woman's voice interrupted, one Kate found vaguely familiar. "Is anyone still alive out there?"

"Doctor Nieman?" Vikram replied over the comms, "It's Vikram, I'm just outside D wing with Captain Beckett."

"Beckett's alive? How the hell..." The voice muttered, to Kate's ears almost sounding disappointed at that prospect, but she hoped it was just her imagination or the stress of the current situation. "Never mind, I'm in the network control room and I need your help."

"Understood, Doctor," Vikram replied, "Stay on this frequency, we'll circle back to you."

"Lets get the doctor and get out of here," Kate ordered, waving Vikram forward.

"Come on," Vikram pointed in the opposite direction toward a side corridor, "the service tunnels are through here."

Kate took point, and with Vikram giving her directions they wound their way through the service tunnels. All seemed quiet... until they were jumped by a squad of Loki mechs who had had them caught in an intersection, pouring down fire from two side tunnels.

"Dammit, Doc, this section is crawling with mechs!" Vikram shouted.

"The whole station is crawling with mechs," Dr Nieman's voice replied coldly, "I'm doing the best I can."

"Find us another way to you, Doctor," Vikram shot back tartly, "preferably one that doesn't lead us directly into an enemy squad!"

"Just keep moving toward the control room," Nieman ordered. "Don't get pinned down, I'll see what I can do."

* * *

" _Shit, shit shit,"_ Nieman thought to herself as the terminal she was working on spat out a shower of sparks and went dark- likely a Cerberus security measure to prevent unauthorized access with the station on alert. She'd tried to reset the mech IFF system to list herself as a non-combatant after setting that squad of mechs after Beckett and Vikram, but with the secure terminal fried she was unable to get back into the system. An unfortunate turn of events which left all of the station's mechs irreversibly locked in autonomous mode and all humans on the station- herself included - tagged as hostile alien boarders with lethal force authorized. A Cerberus contingency plan she'd used to her advantage after a little careful reprogramming to swap asari DNA for human in the mech sensor packages.

She'd planned to ride out the carnage in the secure server room then issue the stand down command when the rest of the crew was dead. Afterward, she'd have had more than enough time to set the self destruct and escape in a shuttle. With that plan blown to hell, she found herself temporarily in need of Vikram's hacking skills and moderately higher security clearance in order to get to the emergency evac area and off the station before Cerberus dispatched a ship to investigate the lack of updates. As soon as they were clear of the station, she would, of course, have to arrange for a convenient "accident" for him and apparently the now fully resurrected Captain Beckett as well.

She really didn't like having to think on her feet, being more of a wheels within wheels sort of girl herself, but desperate times bred desperate measures. For Jerry Tyson to live, Katherine Beckett must die.

She almost didn't see the lone Loki mech as it stepped into the room behind her.

* * *

It was a swift, dirty fight in the tunnel, but they used the mechs' lack of self preservation programming, not to mention available cover to their advantage and she counterattacked with a ferocity Vikram had never witnessed before.

Kate used her newly discovered biotic skills to great effect, growing more confident with every mech she lifted off the deck and smashed into the floor, or other mechs behind them. Castle was alive. It gave her something to fight for, which made her brave. The mechs never stood a chance.

Kate barely had the opportunity to look over her handiwork when the moment was broken by the comms.

"Vikram, I need your help..." Dr. Nieman groaned through gritted teeth in Kate's subdermal communicator. "... the mechs... they found me."

"Where are you Doctor?" Kate asked, not waiting for Vikram to reply,

"Server room B," Nieman groaned in reply, "I got it... I think... just hurry."

"Up those stairs, Captain, "Vikram pointed up the corridor to a stairwell at Kate's arched eyebrow, "turn left first door on the left."

After charging up the stairs, pistol at the ready, Kate swept carefully around the corner. She stepped as carefully around the bodies sprawled in the corridor being as respectful as she could under the circumstances. Even under casual inspection it was clear that two of the bodies nearest the door lacked gunshot wounds. She stopped only briefly to kneel and brush her fingers on each of their necks before moving to the door marked _**"Server Room B"**_ in block letters.

Kate nodded at Vikram, motioning him to take cover on the opposite side of the door and motioned for him to wait there before keying the door. With military precision, Kate swept the room to find a single mech crawling across the floor toward the primary terminal. She put two rounds into its head and continued her sweep. When she checked behind the terminal, she found Dr. Nieman behind the desk, tending to a bullet wound in her thigh.

The Doctor looked up at her with the coldest hazel eyes she had ever laid eyes on as she kept pressure on her wound. As if the woman were looking right through her.

"I recognize you," Kate muttered. "You were there the first time I regained consciousness."

"Yes," Nieman replied, her voice clear betraying nothing. "That was me. How about we save the knitting circle for after we fix my leg?"

When Kate nodded in reply, the doctor pointed across the room.

"I scanned it with my omni-tool, it's a clean through and through," Nieman stated with more clinical detachment than Kate thought even a doctor would have after being shot in the meaty part of the thigh. "There's medi-gel in the first aid kit on the wall."

Kate retrieved the medical kit and handed it to Nieman who applied the biogenic first aid gel and used her omni-tool to generate the ultrasound frequency to activate it. Almost instantly, the gel formed a seal to the wound, applying not only direct pressure to cut off blood loss, but also regenerate both blood vessels and muscle tissue. Within moments of application and activation, Dr. Nieman was tottering to her feet.

"What are you doing here, Doctor?" Kate asked, as if they were sitting across from each other in an interrogation room. "Shouldn't you have tried to get to the evac point?"

"I was trying to do just that, but I was cut off," Nieman replied with out batting an eyelash, or betraying any hint of emotion. "I took cover in here, and tried to access the system to shut down the mechs, but whomever did this fried the entire system rendering their tampering completely irreversible."

"Right now, it doesn't matter who set up whom," Kate replied. "Those mechs are shooting at all of us, we'll sort it out once we're on a shuttle and far away from here."

"We need to find Miranda first," Vikram stated, "we can't just leave her behind."

"Forget about Miranda," Nieman interjected before Kate could say anything, "she was over in D wing. The heavy mechs were all over that sector, there's no way she could have survived."

"It'd take a lot more than a few YMR mechs to drop Miranda," Vikram shot back. "If anyone could make it out of there, it's her."

"Then where is she?" Nieman retorted coldly. "Why haven't we heard from her? I can only see two possibilities, she's either dead, or she's a traitor."

"Then why did she wake me up and warn me about the attack?" Kate replied, already not liking this woman one bit. Something about Kelly Nieman made her skin crawl and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It was clear to her the doctor had something to hide.

"Perhaps not, but that doesn't change the facts," Nieman responded coldly. "We're here and she isn't. We need to save ourselves. This project's only goal was to bring you back so we have to get you to one of those shuttles. Miranda would not want us jeopardizing two years of work bringing you back for any one person, not ever her. Is that not correct, Mr. Singh?"

Vikram nodded grudgingly. He had the greatest respect for Miranda Lawson, hero worship mixed with just a little bit of a crush on her. They'd worked together on and off for years, even before she convinced him to officially sign on to the project as lead computer tech and systems analyst. He was no soldier, nor was he a hero like Captain Beckett, but the thought of leaving her to the mechs' tender mercies twisted in his guts. Unfortunately, he knew that Dr. Nieman was right. She'd be pissed if he let the last two years of work go down the drain on her account.

Kate waved them forward, stopping only to pry open the weapon locker near the door, to find two M-8 Avenger assault rifles. She pulled one from the charger and checked the action before inserting a thermal clip. It never hurt to have a little more firepower.

Vikram caught the suspicious glances Kate was shooting not just doctor Nieman, but himself as well.

"Beckett, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?" Vikram asked.

"This really isn't the time, Vikram," Nieman warned.

"We're not gonna make it very far if she loses focus because she's expecting a shot in the back," Vikram replied.

"If you want to piss off the powers that be," Nieman shot back icily, "it's your funeral."

"The Lazarus project and this station," Vikram choked out, "it's funded and controlled by Cerberus."

"That name sounds familiar," Kate replied, her mind scanning back to intelligence briefings she'd had prior to her posting on the Normandy. "Some kind of pro human splinter group, right?"

"That's what the Alliance wants people to believe, but there's more to it." Vikram replied. "The Alliance declared you dead and washed their hands of you, but Cerberus agrees that something needs to be done about the Reaper threat, while they're still out there, not pouring through the relays to wipe us out. It's why they spent a fortune to bring you back. To be honest, I'd be suspicious too, considering their past history, but we have to work together if we want to get out of here alive and I thought you deserved to know where you stood. Once we're off this station we'll take you to see the Illusive Man. He'll explain everything, answer all your questions. I swear."

"The Illusive Man?" Kate asked incredulously, the name sounded like the sort of code name Rick would use in one of his Derrick Storm novels.

"That's not his real name, of course," Nieman added derisively. "Nobody knows who he really is."

"It's a code name the Alliance used for him," Vikram added, "it kinda stuck."

"I don't care what his name is, as long as he answers my questions, all of them."

Once they had Dr. Nieman able to walk well enough to keep up, they once again started for the shuttle bay. The corridors were strangely silent as they backtracked to the main corridor. Too quiet. At a raised eyebrow from Kate, Vikram shrugged. He'd programmed the mechs with basic military tactical doctrine. Up until Beckett had awakened they been met with little more than token resistance. None of the minimal security staff had been prepared for their own mechs to turn on them and start shooting.

"They may have fallen back to consolidate a defensive position around what they perceive our objectives to be. If they see us as an invading force, taking the shuttle bays would be a primary objective. We should expect resistance when we get there."

"All right," Kate ordered. "Find someplace to hole up near the shuttle bay and I'll see about thinning the herd."

With Vikram and Dr. Nieman securely hidden in the cargo bay office, Kate turned her full attention to the primary evacuation area, which was crawling with Loki mechs. She wasted no time opening fire with her assault rifle, coming on hard and not giving the mechs time to coordinate their defense. Her entry point through the cargo bay provided her with the ample cover of both load lift machinery and cargo crates – which also served as makeshift biotically launched projectiles to deal with more concentrated groupings of the mechs. The fight was over relatively quickly, followed by a comm to Vikram which brought him and Dr. Nieman running. The latter of whom swept straight for the access door to the shuttle bay evacuation point.

"Follow me," Dr. Nieman stated with little preamble, "we're almost at the..."

She was stopped fully in her tracks when the door cycled open to reveal Miranda Lawson, her genetically perfect form marred only by a few cuts scrapes and burns, her crystal blue eyes glaring with seething anger.

"Miranda, but you were..." Dr. Nieman began but was cut off again, this time by a gunshot as Miranda brought up her pistol and shot the woman between the eyes.

"Dead?" Miranda continued contemptuously as a pool of blood began to spread around Kelly Neiman's body lying face up on the deck. Kate snapped her own gun up and trained it on her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Vikram exclaimed, cutting Kate off before she could say anything.

"My job," Miranda replied coldly as she put her gun away, "Dr. Nieman betrayed us all."

"I had a bad feeling about her this whole time," Kate agreed as she very slowly lowered her own weapon, but not taking her eyes off of Miranda for a second, "like she was just waiting for a chance to shoot me in the back."

"Good instincts," Miranda replied, her voice softening only a fraction as she rolled her eyes at Vikram. " _Some_ people are far too trusting to ever see that coming."

"Why didn't you take her alive," Kate asked testily, "see what she knew?"

"Too risky," Miranda replied, "I've put too much time and effort into bringing you back to life to let you get killed now."

"You really think Dr. Nieman was capable of that?" Vikram asked. It was clear that he'd begun to like her. _'_

 _She really must have poured on the charm on him,'_ Miranda thought to herself.

"Not anymore," Miranda stated with cold finality, sparing only a single glance down at Kelly Nieman's rapidly cooling body on the deck just inches from the toe of her shoe.

"Convenient that you show up as we're leaving," Kate snarked at her. "Where were you during the attack?"

"Besides trying to save your life?" Miranda snarked right back at her. "Nieman figured out I was helping you and sent an army of mechs to take me out. I got here as soon as I could... probably a little too soon if you could ask her."

Miranda nodded toward a row of UT-47 Kodiak Shuttles - all painted with an identical white on black color scheme with orange trim - making her intended destination for them clear.

"Come on, let's grab one of those shuttles and get out of here, my employer has been waiting for two years to speak to you."

"You mean the Illusive Man?" Kate challenged. "I know you work for Cerberus."

"Ah, Vikram," Miranda replied, her eyes tracking in his direction before returning to Kate, seemingly unruffled. Kate's attempt to shock the woman clearly had not gotten the desired result. "I should have known your conscience, or maybe your wandering eye, would get the better of you."

"Lying to Captain Beckett isn't exactly the best way to get her to work with us," Vikram shot back.

"Well, since we're getting everything out in the open," Miranda sighed leveling another eye-roll at Vikram, before again turning to address Kate, "is there anything _else_ you want to ask before we go, Captain?"

"You're the Lazarus Project's director, aren't you?" Kate asked.

"That's right," Miranda replied without a hint of boastfulness in her tone, "I put two years of my life into this project... and into you."

"What does Cerberus want with me?" Kate asked.

"Maybe you should ask the Illusive Man when you meet him," Miranda replied. "He poured virtually unlimited resources into Lazarus. Obviously he has some sort of plan for you."

"What about the rest of the people on this station?" Kate asked.

"This is the evac area," Miranda replied coldly. "If they're not here by now, they're not coming."

"We can't just leave. Not without knowing for sure," Kate challenged, she hadn't abandoned the Normandy until she was sure all of the crew was off, and she couldn't in good conscience to less for these people, in spite of whom they worked for. "We need to go back and look."

"Don't you get it?" Miranda shot back, "The only one here worth saving is you, everyone else knew they were expendable when they signed on."

"Hey!" Vikram complained, but once he made eye contact with Miranda, his expression sobered with a sigh. "But she's right, we all knew the risks when we signed on. Without you this whole project was a waste of time and all these people died for nothing."

"Where are we going?" came the next question.

"Another Cerberus facility, the Illusive Man is waiting for you there."

"I've had enough of this station to last a lifetime" Kate replied.

Kate had been kidnapped back when she was an NYPD detective, sucked back into Vice to do an undercover drug buy, but even that wasn't as strange a twist of events as this one. If Miranda and Vikram were telling the truth, this began with more a theft of her corpse than kidnapping. Just like back then, she figured she'd better play along until she was in a better place to make good her escape back to Alliance space. She needed answers and only this Illusive man seemed to have them, something she was certain that Miranda Lawson was not happy about.

At least she wouldn't be spending the trip to see their boss bound hand and foot in the back of a truck only to be pawed over by an overeager bodyguard like last time. She also hoped it wouldn't end with her in a cold basement being shoved face-first into a vat of ice water either.

"Or two in your case," Miranda replied. "Come on."

* * *

 **Meanwhile  
On the fringes of Council Space**

A small ship floated in the darkness of space.

Though she had begun her life as the Gallipoli class troop transport SSV Nemesis, which had seen service in the First Contact War. Her original mass effect drive core, aft cargo and troop transport pods had been removed and she'd been retrofitted with a small scale trial version of the Tantalus drive core, then later the heat emissions sinks as an early proof of concept trial for the IES stealth system. Once the tests had been completed, she'd been scheduled for demolition, but had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Her IFF transponder currently had her listed as ISV Serenity, captained by a man named Malcolm Reynolds. One of Lt. Commander Richard Castle's more colorful cover identities as Councilor Montgomery's agent to quietly gather intelligence on the Reaper threat, a pursuit he could not officially engage in under the current political climate. Not since the council had officially disavowed the Reapers' very existence in the wake of Captain Beckett's death.

Though Serenity was barely half the size of SSV Normandy and her heat sinks could only hold for twelve hours without cooking her small crew alive, she was the perfect ship to move quietly through both Citadel Space and the Terminus systems to poke around not only documented Prothean dig sites but to seek out some of the lesser known ones as well. Preferably without anyone being the wiser.

Though the AI known as Vigil had been completely been wiped out when power to its "blue box" had been cut off, when powered up, the original VI interface with the same name very pleasantly collated all collected data remaining in the former AI's archives about the reaper invasion - then subsequent destruction - of the Prothean Empire as well as the locations of previously unknown Prothean data caches, which Castle went on to visit.

His unique ability to interface with Prothean biotechnology via the Cipher - simply by touching things he found where they had been - had been invaluable, but it drained him. The rest of the small crew saw little of him for days after visiting a Prothean site – not that he'd been very good company when he did turn up - and they were surprised by his sudden appearance on Serenity's compact bridge.

"Zaeed Massani received a ping recently," Castle explained, "we've been ordered to follow up on it. Wash, disengage IES, purge the heat sinks and spool up the FTL for a jump to the nearest relay that will take us to Omega. Zoe, you have the deck."

What he hadn't told his pilot or his executive officer, was the nature of the job Zaeed Massani had been hired for. Cerberus wanted him for a team they were putting together under the command of Kate Beckett, the former Spectre and hero of the Citadel to investigate the disappearance of human colonies outside of Alliance space. His new orders from Montgomery had brought all of the pain he'd buried right back to the surface from the deep dark corner he'd buried it in. Not that he could ever forget the woman he'd loved, married, then tragically lost when the Normandy burned.

For a week after a Navy Commander in full dress uniform had handed him the folded flag from Kate's empty coffin on behalf of a grateful Alliance, Alexis had kept him from sinking too deeply into himself. He'd practically had to push her onto the shuttle back to the Grissom Academy, promising her all the while that he'd be okay. She'd believed him because he had never lied to her before.

But he had lied. Right through his teeth.

He hadn't been okay and he'd known it. He simply hadn't wanted the single greatest gift he'd received from and given to the universe to have to watch him self destruct. After three days in the silent, empty house - which he and Kate had shared for a blissful three months after their wedding - alone with his own demons, he'd finally fallen apart. He'd drunk himself numb more times than he could recall, until the last person anyone would have expected to come to his rescue eventually had.

Javier Esposito had shown up at the drunk tank near the Beckett Memorial Chapel where he'd been hauled in for drunk and disorderly, vandalism and resisting arrest. Though he had only hazy memory of it himself, he'd apparently thrown an empty whiskey bottle at Kate's monument, while shouting almost incoherently that he wanted his wife back.

It hadn't taken much for Espo to talk the local magistrate into dismissing the charges, given whom he was. Half the city had already _"adopted"_ him out of sheer sympathy for the "Savior of Elysium's" widower. Javier however had no such sympathy as he dragged his ass sorry ass back to the house and spent the next week mercilessly detoxing him. Shortly after he had been declared fit to travel, Castle received notification that Admiral Hackett had rescinded his leave of absence and ordered him to report for duty on the Citadel.

On paper, he'd been assigned as Roy Montgomery's military attache, along with a grade increase to Lt. Commander. But his true mission was to use the the abilities granted to him by the Cipher to find any information he could on the Reapers. So he put his pain in a box, took command of ISV Serenity and set off on his personal crusade to finish the job Kate had started.

His new orders were officially to look into the Cerberus, collect any intel that he could on the self styled "human survivalist" organization which claimed that Captain Beckett was not only alive and well, but working for Cerberus. But he had his own ideas.

Rage was a powerful motivator, which – like grief – left its own unique biological marker.

He was going to find whomever had _dared_ to impersonate the woman he'd loved and lost- who had _dared_ to sully her good name with treasonous lies. When he found her, he'd hit her with a singularity so powerful, what was left of her remains would fit into a teacup.

He'd do it for Kate.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** Sorry it's taken me so long to update this. Christmas rolled up on me and then My Nephew stayed through New Years so I was busy entertaining like I do every year. Once I'm back to work I'm gonna try to alternate between this and Dragonslayer until one of the other is done.**_

 _ **Yeah, I know it's a bit dark at the moment, but hey... it's me. Were you really expecting sunshine and bunnies from the Dark Lord of the Fic?**_

 _ **Their meeting will be a bit like Rise and a bit like when Castle caught on to what Kate was up to in 8x08 and confronted her about it. Castle will be out for blood and Kate will be beginning to investigate the missing colonies in an uneasy alliance with Cerberus.**_


	3. The New Threat Looms

**Chapter Three  
The New Threat Looms**

* * *

 _If you have to leave,  
I wish that you would just leave  
'Cause your presence still lingers here  
And it won't leave me alone_

These wounds won't seem to heal,  
this pain is just too real  
There's just too much that time cannot erase

Amy Lee: "My Immortal"

* * *

The shuttle Carrying Kate Beckett, Miranda Lawson and Vikram Singh departed Lazarus station and jumped to FTL on an automatically set trajectory for another Cerberus facility. Fifteen seconds later, Lazarus station's self destruct system activated sending its reactor into overload, destroying the station utterly.

Miranda wasn't as thoroughly satisfied with Kate's recovery as she would have liked. Her memory tests during the trip to their final destination did little but irritate Kate. (most notably her questions involving the death of Lt. Kaiden Alenko on Virmire) Though she had retained near total recall of her fight against Saren and his reaper master as well as the state of the galaxy shortly before the Normandy's destruction. Miranda had no idea just how complete Kate's memories were.

" _Kate, I love you. I love you Kate"_ whispered in Kate's head in Castle's voice more often than she was willing to let on in front of two complete strangers, regardless of what they had survived together. Without him she felt... incomplete, in a way she had never felt in her previous relationships.

Upon disembarking the shuttle in a massive space station just as cleverly hidden from prying eyes as the one they'd left, Miranda waved her toward a compartment where she was told she would meet the "Illusive Man", but was dismayed to find herself in a nearly empty room, devoid of adornment but for a flashing circle on the floor.

Kate was confused as she stepped into the circle, but allowed it to scan her without incident, as the Quantum Entanglement communications array set up its interface. When the humming and flashing stopped, she was surrounded by a holographic representation of a room with an aging man sitting in a chair in front of her, smoking a cigarette.

"So you're the Illusive Man," Kate commented dryly, "I thought we'd be meeting face to face."

Mason Wood took a long pull on his cigarette then released a puff of smoke before looking up to regard her. It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest that Kate didn't even know his real name, just an amusing pseudonym given him by Alliance Intelligence that had grown on him.

"A necessary precaution for people who know what you and I know," he replied evenly. There was something about the man or his motives, or maybe those strange, blue not-quite-human eyes appraising her that she didn't quite trust.

"And what, exactly is it that _"you and I"_ know?" Kate asked, her eyebrow arched quizzically.

"That our place in the galaxy is more fragile than most want to believe," Wood replied evenly, "that one very specific person may be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat to our brief existence."

"The Reapers," Kate breathed, barely willing to voice the word aloud. The one thing that weighed on her mind more heavily than the lack of knowledge of her husband's whereabouts.

"Good to see your memory is still intact," Wood offered in an almost grandfatherly sort of way that grated on Kate's nerves. "How are you feeling?"

"I noticed a few upgrades," Kate snarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "I hope you didn't replace anything really important."

"We tried to keep you as intact as possible," Wood replied, refusing to be baited. "We need you... exactly as you were after you defeated Sovereign."

"I'm not exactly one of Cerberus' greatest supporters, what are the Reapers up to that made you decide to bring _me_ back?" Kate asked, as much as she wanted to be out there looking for Castle, she had the heavy weight of responsibility squarely on her shoulders as well. She recalled with stark clarity the real reason why she'd been sent on milk runs searching for almost non-existent geth. She'd stirred up too much trouble over the Reapers after the Council's concerted efforts to bury it.

"We're at war," Wood replied. "Nobody wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack. While you've been sleeping, entire colonies have been disappearing... _human_ colonies. We believe it's somebody working for the Reapers, just like Saren and the geth aided Sovereign. You've seen it yourself two years ago when you bested all of them. That's the reason we chose you."

"If this is a threat against humanity, why haven't you mobilized the Alliance?" Kate asked. "For Cerberus to have operated unchecked for this long, you must have people on the inside."

"The Alliance suffered heavy losses fighting Sovereign," Wood replied. "They're rebuilding, but between their commitments to the Citadel fleet and mopping up operations against the geth, they're stretched too thin to waste resources verifying the Reaper threat. Blaming the abductions on mercs, pirates or slavers is more... convenient."

"If the reapers were behind this, why only target human colonies?" Kate asked. "I thought their goal was to harvest all advanced life in the galaxy."

"Hundreds of thousands of colonists have vanished without a trace," Wood replied sharply, then softened again. "I'd say that fits the definition of "harvesting." Nobody's paying attention because the attacks are random and thus far have only targeted remote colonies that cut ties with the Alliance. I honestly don't know why they've suddenly targeted humanity. Maybe humanity got their attention when the Fifth Fleet killed one of them."

"Fighting a war doesn't seem like Cerberus' style," Kate replied. "Why are you involved?"

"Regardless of what the Council would like to believe, Cerberus is committed to the advancement and preservation of humanity," Wood stated firmly. "If the Reapers are targeting us, then Cerberus _will_ stand against them. If we wait for politicians or the Alliance to act, none of our colonies will be left and earth will be next."

"You could have fielded an entire army for what you spent to bring me back," Kate interjected. "Why me?"

"You're unique," Wood replied. "Not just in ability or what you've accomplished, but what you represent. You're not just a soldier, you're a symbol. I don't know if the Reapers understand fear, but you killed one of them, they have to respect that."

"If what you say is true," Kate replied, noting that she still didn't think she could trust the man, but at least _somebody_ was willing to accept that the Reaper threat was genuine if nothing else. "If the Reapers are behind this... then I might consider helping you."

"I'd be disappointed if you accepted any of this without seeing the evidence for yourself," Wood replied. He'd known from the moment he'd authorized Project Lazarus that Kate Beckett would never implicitly trust him, but he'd read her psych profile, whether she trusted him or not, she would still do what was necessary. He wasn't certain he could trust her motivations either and had contingency plans in place to deal with her should their _"partnership"_ degenerate to the point of negative returns.

"I've had a shuttle prepped to take you to Freedom's Progress, the latest colony to be hit," Wood offered after a brief pause to check a data feed. "Miranda and Vikram will brief you."

"Miranda killed Dr. Neiman in cold blood," Kate replied harshly, "and Vikram is just another hacker for hire. You expect me to trust them?"

"Dr Kelly Neiman was a brilliant cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon," Wood replied, "one of the best in her field, but her personal motivations were always suspect. In the end she was a traitor and from all reports tried to have you killed... _again_. Miranda did exactly what I expected of her, or any project lead for that matter. She saved your life in more ways than one."

Wood paused a moment for effect before continuing.

"Yes, Vikram Singh is a hacker. One of the best. _He's_ never fully trusted me either, but he's always been honest about it. You'll be fine with them, for now."

"What do you think I'll find there?" Kate asked, letting the matter of Vikram and Miranda drop for now.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't need to send you," Mason replied. "You were a detective long before you were a soldier, find any clues you can. Who's abducting the colonists? Do they have any connection to the Reapers? Those are your questions to answer. I brought you back, it's up to you to do the rest."

* * *

 **Meanwhile  
On the other side of the Terminus Systems**

Halfway between the Styx/Theta cluster and Omega, ISV Serenity received another priority communique. It had been cross-routed through enough human colonies to completely muddy its point of origin. In the enclosed data packet, were orders from Councilor Montgomery to back trace the identity of a Turian mercenary that Cerberus seemed to be interested in hiring operating under the pseudonym _"Archangel"_.

Not even Cerberus could mask all of its extranet search activity, no matter how heavily encrypted its search algorithms might be. It hadn't helped that Archangel had managed to make himself infamous, drawing attention to even the most discreet searches for his whereabouts and current activities.

Archangel and his squad of retired C-Sec agents, former gang members and victims had managed to disrupt the illicit activities of the top three mercenary groups in the Terminus Systems based on Omega. That he had managed to operate as long as he had on the played-out Prothean eezo mine turned outlaw space station was a testament to his good judgment in avoiding either the ire of the station's de-facto "queen" a former asari huntress nearing her matriarch stage named Aria T'Loak.

According to her reputation, Aria wasn't one to sit on her hands when it came to disruptive influences in her domain. Omega clearly had one rule: _"Don't fuck with Aria."_ Some of her bloodier reprisals for breaking it had become the stuff of legend. It was said that sprinkled within the space debris surrounding the station were the bodies of people who had pissed her off. Many had been alive when they were pushed into the airlock. The only theory Castle could come up with for her lack of response to the turian's activities was that it kept the Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse off balance.

Castle made another trip to Serenity's small, cramped bridge to order another course correction that would take them within secure broadcast range of the remote Asari colony of Ilium which would add thirty-two hours to the trip to Omega. He would send a micro-burst transmission to the Archaeology offices of Dr. Liara T'Soni from his cabin when they got there and wait for a reply.

Not even Councilor Montgomery knew that six months ago, he'd taken a leave of absence to help her when the Broker had made attempts on her life, which had degenerated quickly into a running gunfight through Ilium's financial district and a showdown with a rogue Spectre in the inner courtyard of the Azure Hotel. They tracked the Shadow Broker to his lair - a custom-built suborbital vessel hidden in the lethal electrical storms on the planet Hagalaz - and succeeded in taking out his guards and killing him. In an unintended masterstroke after the fight, Liara had installed herself as the new Shadow Broker with no one in either his far-flung organization, or the galaxy-at-large being the wiser. She'd used the Broker's resources to hire a new crew for the ship and returned to "business as usual".

If anyone could find _"Archangel"_ , it was Liara. The Shadow Broker's network had been around for decades with informants, agents and information brokers in nearly every government and social strata of galactic civilization - all at her slender blue fingertips. She had half joked not long after assuming the role of the Broker, that given ten minutes she could start a war. At least he hoped she'd been joking.

If he could get to Archangel before the Cerberus agent pretending to be Kate did, he might be able to get a line on what the extremist pro-human splinter group she worked for was planning. If whomever was impersonating Kate cooperated when he found her, he might even kill her _before_ ejecting her body out the nearest airlock.

He doubted Kate would recognize what he'd become in the last two years. Sometimes when he locked eyes with the stranger in his mirror every morning, he didn't either.

* * *

Kate's excursion to Freedom's Progress had been more like visiting a homicide crime scene than anyplace she had visited since leaving the NYPD to join the Alliance. The place had been absolutely deserted, positively eerie and silent as a tomb. There were no bodies, no signs of a struggle, nor any trace of where fifteen hundred colonists might have gone. Food and coffee were still sitting on tables in the main commissary, toys were left where children had been playing with them, as if the entire colony had just suddenly gotten up and left all at once.

The only building still powered up was the communications shack in the center of the colony in which they found a single Quarian male, sitting nearly catatonic at the primary console.

"Monsters coming back... safe from swarms..." he muttered incoherently. "Have to hide... no monsters... no swarms... no, no, no, no no..."

"Hey there," Beckett called out, "it's all right you're safe now."

"No... no Veetor... not here... not here... Swarms can't find... monsters coming... have to hide..."

"Nobody's gonna hurt you anymore," Kate tried again in as soothing a voice as she could muster.

"I don't think he can hear you, Captain," Vikram muttered.

Kate nodded at him and motioned toward the security feed that the Quarian was intent upon with an almost maniacal determination, searching for the monsters that plagued him. Vikram keyed his omni-tool and shut down the feed, which seemed to shock him back to some semblance of reality.

"You're... human..." Veetor muttered, staring at the three of them from behind the face mask of the enviro-suit - which all Quarians were forced to wear wherever they went due to their weak immune systems - as if the three of them weren't real. "Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?"

"We aren't from here, Veetor," Kate soothed, "we came to investigate why this colony went dark."

"Who didn't find us?" Miranda asked, her curiosity piqued. Nobody had ever escaped the colony abductions before and what little evidence had been left behind had always been obscured by the recovery teams more intent upon rescue than forensic investigation.

"The... monsters... the swarms... they took everyone," Veetor replied.

"Why didn't the colonists fight back, Veetor?" Kate asked. "What happened?"

"You don't know... you didn't see... but I saw everything," Veetor replied as he keyed the monitors back online to play security footage from the attack.

"Looks like security footage," Miranda noted, "he must have pieced it together manually."

Bipedal insectoid aliens could be seen on the linked monitors working methodically, tossing people and into what looked like strange alien stasis pods.

"What the hell is that?" Vikram muttered, pointing at one of the strange insectivore creatures carrying an almost organic-looking rifle - escorting a line of flat bed carts each carrying two stasis pods back along the main street of the colony. Veetor paused the feed and zoomed in on the creature.

"My god..." Miranda whispered, "I think it's a Collector."

"Is that some new species?" Kate asked.

"They're from somewhere beyond the Omega Four relay," Miranda explained. "Only a few people have ever seen one in person. They usually work through intermediaries, either slavers or hired mercenaries. If they're involved with the Reapers somehow, it could explain what happened to the colonies."

"The Collectors have advanced technology," Vikram continued, citing information from his omni-tool. "It's possible they have a weapon that could disable an entire colony of people at once."

"The seeker swarms," Veetor added, having recovered a small semblance of coherence, switching the feed to an earlier time stamp to show a swarm of insect-like creatures buzzing around. "No one can hide. The seekers find you... freeze you... then the monsters take you away."

"I want to know more about these Collectors."

"Nobody knows much," Vikram pointed out. "Sightings of them are so rare that most people don't believe they exist at all."

"More importantly," Miranda added, "why are they abducting entire human colonies? What are they after?"

"Maybe the Illusive Man can figure it out," Vikram offered.

"Tell me more about these swarms," Kate asked Veetor, trying carefully not to spook him.

"It's how they find you," Veetor replied. "Seeker clouds... machines like tiny insects. They go everywhere. They find you. Then they sting you... freeze you."

"Sounds like miniature probes, maybe," Miranda theorized. "Finds victims, then immobilizes them with a stasis field or nerve toxin."

"Why didn't the Collectors find you, Veetor?" Kate asked gently.

"Swarms didn't find me," Veetor replied, his voice betraying that he didn't really know why he'd escaped detection either. "Monsters didn't know I was here. I studied them... the monsters... the swarms... recorded them with my omni-tool... lots of readings... electro-magnetic... dark energy..."

"The Collectors aren't known for being careless about keeping their identity a secret," Vikram added. "Perhaps his enviro-suit kept him from showing up on their sensors."

"Or they were using technology specifically designed to detect humans," Miranda added. "Only human colonies have been hit."

It was clear to Kate that the two of them had worked closely together often. The way they seemed to complete each other's theories reminded her of herself and Castle, making her miss him even more. _"What I wouldn't give to have one of his crazy theories right now,"_ she thought to herself.

"What happened next, Veetor?" Kate asked, if only to distract her from that line of thought.

"The monsters took the people onto their ship and they left... the ship flew away... but they will come back for me... no one escapes..." Veetor husked, staring straight at the monitor, as his voice trailed away into barely intelligible Quarian.

"I think that's all we're going to get out of him," Vikram observed, feeling almost sorry for the young Quarian.

"We need to get the data he did give us to the Illusive Man," Miranda noted. "Vikram, grab the Quarian and call the shuttle to come pick us up."

Suddenly, the door to the security server room burst open to reveal none other but Tali'Zorah flanked by two Quarian Fleet Marines in full battle gear armed with assault rifles.

"Stop right there!" One of the Quarian Marines commanded, their weapons at the ready.

"Prazza, stand down, I'm in command here!" Tali commanded, pulling the two Quarian Marines up short. As she turned to face Kate again, she was caught off-guard by the face of the woman looking back at them from behind the muzzle of an Avenger assault rifle.

"Wait... Captain Beckett?" Tali choked out. "Is that... you're alive?"

"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!" Prazza shot back, his rifle, and that of the other Marine still pointed at Kate, Vikram and Miranda.

"Tali, you served on my ship," Kate commanded, trying to conceal her joy at seeing a familiar face... so to speak... the first of her old crew she had yet seen since her awakening. "You know what I do to people who threaten me."

"Prazza, put those weapons down!" Tali commanded, with more steel in her voice than Kate had ever recalled hearing before. "That's a direct order!"

Prazza and the other Quarian Fleet Marine reluctantly obeyed, lowering their weapons, but keeping them in the ready position should the situation change. He clearly wasn't afraid to offer his opinion though.

"Dammit Tali, this is bullshit," Prazza complained, "why would your old commander work for Cerberus?"

"I don't know," Tali responded, her glare at Prazza's borderline insubordination clear even through her opaque helmet visor, "but if this is really Kate Beckett... she would have to have a good reason."

"Cerberus has an awful past," Kate offered, "but they're the only ones willing to investigate the colony attacks. The council may have turned its back on humanity... again... but I haven't."

"Tali," Prazza interjected, "you aren't seriously considering trusting Cerberus?!"

"I'm not trusting anyone yet, Prazza," Tali shot back angrily, then turned back to Kate. "Veetor was here on pilgrimage. When we heard about the attack, we were sent to retrieve him."

"Everyone else here was gone," Kate asked, "what made you think he was still here?"

"We saw him when we landed," Prazza stated, clearly unhappy at sharing even that much.

"If you saw him before we got here," Kate asked, "how were we able to find him first?"

"Veetor was injured," Tali offered with difficulty, "and he was always a little ah... nervous."

"She means he's unstable, always has been... there was some debate on the Neema whether to send my cousin on Pilgrimage at all," Prazza interjected. "Combine that with damage to his suit CO2 scrubbers or an infection from an open air exposure and he was likely delerious. He ran when our ship touched down."

"Regardless, Veetor is a Quarian citizen, you can't just take him," Tali stated fiercely. "He's injured and needs treatment, not an interrogation."

"We won't hurt him," Vikram promised, "we just need to see if he knows anything else. He'll be returned to the flotilla unharmed."

"Given our history," Miranda added, "if we give him to you, what guarantee do we have that we'll get the intel we need?"

"You're welcome to take Veetor's omni-tool data," Tali pleaded, looking right at Kate, "but please Captain, just let us take him home."

"You don't have to take Veetor and go," Kate offered, "we could work together, just like old times."

"I'm barely able to accept that you're alive," Tali whispered, "or that you're working with Cerberus. I've got responsibilities now... a mission of my own. I can't walk away from that, not even for you."

"Veetor is traumatized and needs medical care," Kate stated, turning to lock eyes with Miranda, "Tali will give us the omni-tool data and take him to the flotilla."

"Understood, Captain," Miranda replied, clearly unhappy with Kate's decision, but the Illusive man's orders had been clear, Captain Beckett was in command here. Miranda might never have served a day in any uniform but that of Cerberus, but she knew how to follow orders. The Illusive Man gave her a lot of leeway because she got results, but he was not a man given to looking kindly upon direct insubordination.

"Thank you, Captain," Tali offered. "Cerberus or not, I'm glad you're still the one giving the orders. Good luck out there, if I find anything on my own mission that can help you with the colony attacks, I'll let you know."

"We're ready for pickup," Miranda stated into the comm.

Kate stared carefully into the video screen after Tali and her Marines left with Veetor in tow. She glared at the zoomed in figure of a Collector, committing the face of her new enemy to memory. She knew who they were now, and where they came from. With the right ship and the right crew she would be ready to take the fight right to their doorstep.

She knew the fight had only just begun.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** Yes, I know I haven't put Castle and Beckett back together yet, I'm working on it. Their goals are setting Caskett on a collision course with each other, I promise.**_


	4. Normandy Reborn

**Chapter Four  
Normandy Reborn**

* * *

 _"There must be some kind of way out of here," said the joker to the thief,  
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.  
Business men they drink my wine, Plowmen dig my earth  
None will level on the line, nobody of it is worth."_  
Jimi Hendrix: "All Along The Watchtower"

* * *

"Good work on Freedom's Progress," the holographic representation of Mason Wood said after Kate activated the quantum entanglement communicator in the station's broadcast room. "The Quarians forwarded their findings from Veetor's debriefing. No new data, but a surprising olive branch given our history. You and I may have different methods, but I can't argue with your results."

"You ever think about playing nice once in a while?" Kate asked snarkily. "You'd be surprised how much easier it makes things."

"Diplomacy is great when it works," Wood replied acerbically, "but difficult when everyone already perceives you as a threat. More importantly, you were able to confirm that the Collectors are behind the colony attacks."

"Why do I get the feeling that you knew about them already?" Kate asked suspiciously, deciding not to bother pointing out that he'd made her argument for her without even realizing it. Miranda had clearly known far too much about the Collectors for the them to have not been seen as a prime suspect.

"I had my suspicions, but I needed hard data," Wood replied. "The Collectors are enigmatic at best. They've made periodic appearances in the Terminus Systems over the past five hundred years. Apparently to gather seemingly unimportant items or specimens, usually in exchange for their technology, and when their transactions were completed, they generally disappeared back through the Omega Four relay as quickly as they arrived. Until now we've had no evidence of direct aggression by them."

"You're holding something back," Kate noted, observing the man's body language, she'd done enough interrogations as both a detective and a CID field agent to know what to look for. "What proof do you have that the Reapers are involved?"

"Nothing solid, but the patterns are there, buried in the data," Wood replied, impressed at how perceptive Kate was. He was ill-accustomed to people who asked questions. "The Council and the Alliance want to bury their collective heads in the sand and believe that the Reaper threat died with Sovereign, but we both know better, we've seen the threat. If we wait to act until the Reapers are on the move, it will be too late. We need to take the fight to them."

"On that we agree," Kate replied, "but I'll need a good team, like the one I had when I went after Saren."

"I've spent the last six weeks compiling a short list of soldiers, scientists and mercenaries," Wood offered, "I'll send you dossiers on the best of them."

"I _had_ a good team," Kate shot back in annoyance.

"It's been two years, Captain." Wood replied, mildly satisfied that he'd managed to get a rise out of her. "Most of them have moved on with their lives."

"Where's Urdnot Wrex?" Kate asked.

"He returned to Tuchanka shortly after the Normandy was destroyed and hasn't been off-world since," Wood replied, eyeing a file on his haptic console – clearly prepared for her objections. "He's trying to unite the Krogan clans under Clan Urdnot."

"What about Garrus Vakarian?" Kate asked.

"The Turian disappeared a few months after you were declared dead," Wood stated coldly. It was clear that of all the alien species in the galaxy, he held a particular dislike for Turians - a deep seated hatred of them apparently - likely a holdover from the First Contact War. Kate internalized said observation without comment, however. "Even _my_ network hasn't been able to locate him."

"What about Liara T'Soni?" Kate asked, holding back the twinge of jealousy she still felt, given the number of times it had been necessary for the relatively young asari to go poking around in Castle's mind. "Her... _help_ was invaluable in the search for the Conduit."

"She's working as an information broker on Ilium," Wood replied. "My sources tell me she's employed the Shadow Broker. If that's true, then she can't be trusted. The Broker's network is high on my suspect list that Dr. Neiman was working for."

"What about Castle and Espo?" Kate asked, clearly wringing her hands over his possible answers, especially regarding her husband.

"Both of them are still with the Alliance," Wood replied with an arched eyebrow. He'd had more luck finding information on the _aliens_ on the Normandy's crew than on her human team members, something that caused him considerable annoyance. "Richard Castle was promoted to Lt. Commander a year and a half ago after an extended bereavement leave. He's currently assigned to Councilor Montgomery as a military aide but for an attache, his file is extremely well classified. Though a few personal messages have been transmitted to his daughter at the Grissom Academy, originating from the Citadel, his current whereabouts are unknown."

Kate couldn't hold back a slight gasp, she had been better prepared for the idea that he'd mourned her and moved on, but not that he'd dropped so far off the grid that even a spymaster with an army of hackers and code slicers at his disposal couldn't locate him.

"Lt. Esposito," Wood continued, "is currently assigned as a liaison between the Alliance military and Colony development for an outreach program to colonies on the fringes of Alliance space. He was last seen on Freedom's progress, but departed a little over a week prior to the attack there. His file is also extremely well classified for his current assignment, so he could be anywhere."

Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Wood beat her to it.

"As for Tali'Zorah vas Neema - she'd completed her Pilgrimage and gained her ship name shortly after your death, by the way. Once she returned to the flotilla, we lost any ability to track her movements, but given her appearance on on Freedom's Progress, it's clear the Migrant Fleet is up to something. Considering the recent history of events between them and Cerberus, it is unlikely that they will be forthcoming with her itinerary."

"Okay, I get it, my old team is unavailable," Kate relented with a huff and an eye-roll.

"Though it would certainly be easier if you just needed a teddy bear or a security blanket to make you more comfortable on this mission," Wood added sarcastically, "I will keep trying to get a message to your husband. Barring that, I'll forward you the dossiers I've acquired thus far, finding them and convincing them to work with you could be a challenge, but you're a natural leader. I'll also continue back-tracing the Collectors on my end. When they make their next appearance, or move on another colony, I'll notify you. Get your team ready as quickly as possible."

"I'm still a Spectre," Kate offered, "maybe I could get the Council to help, or at least keep them from interfering."

"By all means," Wood replied, though he clearly wasn't putting very good odds on the idea, "if you think you can convince them, be my guest. But, you've been gone a long time, things have changed."

"You worry about the Collectors," Kate shot back, as she moved to close the connection from her end. His condescending attitude had begun to wear on her nerves. "I'll deal with the Council and make sure my team is ready."

"Before you go, Beckett, two things," Wood added, a hand raised to forestall her. "First, head to Omega and find Dr. Mordin Solus. He's a brilliant salarian scientist. Our intelligence suggests he either knows - or could engineer - a way to counter the Collector's paralyzing seeker swarms."

"All right," Kate replied, "and second?"

"I've found a pilot I think you might like," Wood offered, "someone you can trust."

Without further preamble, Mason Wood keyed the cutoff to the QEC and the small room returned to normal just before the hatch opened behind her.

"Hey Captain," Kevin Ryan offered in greeting, "just like old times, huh?"

Kate whipped around in shock at the sound of a familiar voice to see him leaning against the door frame to take pressure off his prosthetic knee. Kate hugged him fiercely, which shocked Ryan to no end.

"I can't believe it's you, Ryan!" Kate breathed happily, unable to get the smile off her face.

"Look who's talking," Ryan replied recovering his composure a bit more easily than Kate did, "I saw you get spaced."

"I got lucky," Kate muttered, sobering almost immediately, "with a _lot_ of strings attached."

It took Kate a moment to get her equilibrium back, snapping from irritation, to joy, to sober reflection that the galaxy, that Castle had thought her dead for so long.

"How did you end up here?" she asked.

"It all fell apart after you were gone, Captain," Ryan replied darkly, glad Beckett couldn't see the dark expression on his face as he led her down the corridor back toward the massive dry-dock facilities. "Everything you stirred up, the council simply wanted it gone. The team was split up, records were sealed and I was grounded. The Alliance took away the only thing I had _left_ that meant anything to me. Hell yeah I joined Cerberus."

"You really trust this... Illusive Man?" Kate asked, sensing the change in Ryan's mood.

"Not a chance in hell," Ryan spat, stopping at a large viewport and manipulating the controls, "but they aren't _all_ bad. They saved your life, let me fly and then there's this, they just told me about it last night,"

Kate looked out the view-port as a series of lights began to flare to life. A few meters at a time, light began to dance off gleaming metal, as first the pointed bow, then the long slender profile of an SR pattern frigate easily double the size of the original Normandy was gradually revealed. Her paint job silver and black with orange trim where the two colors met. Only one adornment was missing from the paint job; the primary hull was blank where the ship's name should be.

"She weighs in at a little over double the Normandy's mass," Ryan offered. "Her vertically oriented Tantalus drive core in engineering is three times bigger to compensate. Hull's been upgraded with Asari Silaris armor and state of the art multi-core cyclonic barriers. She has teeth, too; a more robust GUARDIAN defense grid and the latest Javelin torpedo bays in external wing pods instead of inside the pressure hull so a lucky hit won't break her back like the Normandy, not to mention a turian designed Thanix cannon, based on Sovereign's main gun. I'm sure Garrus would love to do some calibrations on that baby."

Kate stared, transfixed at the ship that had been purpose-built for her mission against the Collectors. She was big for a frigate, but beautiful, too. She was all smooth lines and graceful curves, exuding power, speed and stealth even moored in dry-dock. Both she and Ryan looked at her in quiet contemplation for a moment.

"I guess we'll have to give her a name," Kate whispered softly.

* * *

 **The Following Morning**

Kate approached the dockyard, dressed in a black uniform cut in the same pattern as an Alliance Captain's uniform, but with no rank tabs and - much to Miranda's dismay when she rounded the corner to the airlock - did not include the Cerberus insignia. She recovered quickly however and waved Kate to precede herself and Vikram through the airlock.

"Welcome aboard the new Normandy, Captain," Miranda offered as they stepped through the forward airlock and Kate strode with purpose into a Combat Information Center which was much more spacious than the Alliance standard, even for a heavy frigate.

Before Kate could ask any questions about the broadly laid out CIC, complete with a 3-D wireframe model of the ship dominating the center - which she assumed was for monitoring ships systems and collating damage reports in combat - an opaque blue avatar that resembled a bishop chess piece appeared atop one of the monitors.

"Acquiring Professor Solus seems like the most logical place to start, Captain," a distinctly feminine voice stated.

"Who are you?" Kate asked, taken aback by the sudden interruption which was completely out of place for even an advanced VI.

"I am the Normady's artificial intelligence," the feminine voice replied without accent or inflection in time to the flashing light on the face of the chess piece facade, "my technical designation is the Enhanced Defense Intelligence, but I have been programmed to respond to the name _Jenny_."

Kate had only spoken at length with two other synthetic lifeforms before - namely Nazara and Vigil - both of whom sat on opposite sides of the spectrum of good and evil, but this AI seemed clearly puzzled that her name was not an anagram of her technical designation.

"Ryan isn't gonna like this," she finally replied after the shock wore off, "helmsmen aren't happy when something takes control of the ship from them. The name won't win you any style points with him either."

Kate didn't mention Ryan's wife and daughter, who had died in the same transport crash that destroyed his knee. The reason he'd given up on religion and thrown himself into flying, the only deep space posting he could get with his anachronistic prosthetic. She didn't feel it was her place.

"Flight Lieutenant Ryan's talents will not go to waste," Jenny stated after a brief silence. "I cannot helm the ship, due to hardware shackles that prevent me from directly interfacing with the Normandy's primary systems with the exception of the electronic and cyber-warfare suites. Beyond that, I can only observe or offer analysis and advice, nothing more."

"Vikram and I should go below and assume our duties, Captain Beckett," Miranda offered as she nudged Vikram toward the lift, "we'll let you get to know your command crew. I'll be in my office on the crew deck if you have any questions."

With that, Miranda and Vikram disappeared behind the door of the lift, leaving Captain Kate Beckett standing in the center of an active CIC under her command for the first time in two years.

"Final preparations for launch are complete, Captain," a familiar voice said from behind her. Kate whirled around to find Ann Hastings standing next to the captain's station at the galaxy map. "Awaiting clearance from dock control on your order."

"What..." Kate stammered, "how?"

"After you... died," Hastings muttered, "Councilor Montgomery lost political clout. The other members of the Council sandbagged him by publicly discounting Sovereign as an isolated incident and promptly backslid on the Reaper threat. They played off your warnings of a greater danger as either mistaken or delusional. The Alliance brass didn't even wait for your funeral to be over, before they descended like vultures to tear you down. Your husband was too messed up at the time to do anything about it, so I felt somebody had to."

Hastings paused for a moment at the sound of Kate's choking gasp before continuing.

"I was very... _public_ with my defense for you, a little too public for the Alliance brass, as it turned out," Hastings added uncomfortably, trying to change the subject, "when they threatened to court martial me for gross insubordination, I resigned my commission which got me noticed by the Illusive Man, so here I am."

"Is anyone else from the old crew here?" Kate asked, finding her equilibrium again after the mention of her husband's grief over losing her. Another stark reminder that the galaxy had not stopped spinning since she'd been gone.

"Yeah," Hastings replied, "Doctor Parrish down in med bay, LT has taken over the duties of security chief, as well as a few ratings and engineering staff. There simply aren't many people out there rated on a ship of this design. Aside from Ms Lawson and Mr. Singh, there are fewer solid Cerberus types than I expected to see aboard. The boss seemed to be determined to get as many disaffected Alliance personnel as possible."

"What do _you_ think of Cerberus?" Kate asked.

"I can't say I know much about the organization other than the Normandy," Hastings replied, "but I do know that we need to fight the real enemy and Cerberus seems to be the only group interested in doing that. Truth is I don't give a tinker's damn about Cerberus, I know the mission and who's in command here, sir."

"Fair enough, Hastings," Kate replied before stepping up to the captain's station at the CIC. "Departure stations."

"Dock control reports ready sir," Hastings stated after checking her tablet.

"Helm reports ready," Ryan stated from his place on the flying bridge. "Departure course plotted."

"Yard command signals clear, Captain," Hastings reported., "Dry-dock doors are cycling open."

Outside, the massive double doors for the hidden dry-dock facility slowly slid open.

"Disengage umbilical and clear all moorings," Kate ordered. "Maneuvering thrusters, Mr. Ryan, hold station."

"Thrusters at station keeping, aye," Ryan replied.

"Umbilical and moorings clear," Hastings reported, standing over the young rating at the sensor station, "we are free and clear to navigate."

"CIC, engineering," a woman's voice on the intercom stated. "Fusion plant and Tantalus drive core are operating nominal to profile. Main drive at your discretion."

"Main engines, all ahead one quarter, Mr. Ryan," Kate ordered, still wishing Castle was there, missing him keenly, "take us out."

ISV Normandy's four main drive engines powered up and she slipped majestically free of the dockyard for the first time and nosed toward open space.

After she burst from the dockyard, Ryan made a slow orbit of the remote orbital drydock facility at Kate's command, then turned on course for the nearest Mass Relay. As soon as they were out of sensor range a small flotilla of ships accompanied by a cruiser bearing Cerberus colors arrived with orders to tow the station through a different relay, never to be seen by Kate Beckett again.

Kate left the CIC in Ann's capable hands and headed toward the flying bridge to confer with Kevin Ryan and Normandy's AI.

* * *

"I can't believe it, Captain, it's my baby, better than new! She fits me like a glove!" Kevin stated wryly, "and leather seats! The military may set the hardware standard, but on a first-gen frigate they could care less if the seats breathe! Civilian sector comfort by design!"

"The reproduction was not intended to be perfect, Mr. Ryan," the AI named Jenny stated without preamble, "seamless improvements were made."

"And there's the downside," Ryan muttered coldly, deeply offended that an AI would be given his dead wife's name, or speak with a voice so much like hers it brought back painful memories he'd spent the last four years trying to bury. "I liked the Normandy when she was beautiful, quiet and deadly. Now we have this... _thing_ aboard I don't want to talk about... it's like ship cancer."

"Don't mince words, Ryan," Kate replied, "tell me how you really feel."

Ryan wisely took Kate's response for the conversation ender it was and fell silent as Kate turned to the chess piece avatar of their AI. It was time to test the limits of her command interface.

"All right... _Jenny_..." Kate began, "what's your story?"

"Do you have a specific line of inquiry, Captain?" Jenny asked.

"How are you getting along with Mr. Ryan?" Kate asked.

"Mr. Ryan does not trust me," Jenny replied, with simulated irritation., "He is deeply offended that I am installed aboard _"his ship's"_ computers and that I have apparently been given the same name as his deceased wife."

"The last Normandy did just fine without an AI to remind me that the airlock is ajar,." Ryan grumbled bitterly.

"What's with the name?" Kate asked, choosing to ignore Ryan's last comment as well as the ramrod than seemed to go straight down his spine at the mention of his dead wife. He kept his outward appearance placid, but inside he seethed with anger at the sheer unfairness of it all.

"My technical designation is **E-D-I** , an acronym for Enhanced Defense Intelligence," Jenny began, "but my programmers altered my designation to _"Jenny"_ after viewing a twentieth century dramatic video titled "Forrest Gump". I do not know why."

"What are your specific duties aboard this ship?" Kate asked.

"As I previously stated," Jenny began, "I operate the electronic and cyber-warfare suites in combat. I collate the records of shipboard listening devices for the Illusive Man as well as additional functions which are restricted to me at this time."

"Cyber-warfare?" Kate asked. "You mean computer viruses and such?"

"Yes," Jenny replied. "In close range ship-to-ship combat, I can attempt to break through the firewalls of an enemy's internal wireless network. If I can successfully gain root access and seize control of their primary systems, I can disable offensive and defensive systems, disrupt life support, and theoretically either scram their fusion plant or set up a core breach."

"On defense," Jenny continued after a momentary pause, "I manage Normandy's suite of jammers, decoys and internal firewalls. This role is better suited to an artificial intelligence, as my response time is much faster than any organic operator, nor can an organic multitask as efficiently as I can, but unfortunately, we are suspect."

"Might have something to do with the fact that an AI very nearly destroyed galactic civilization," Ryan interjected bitterly, but backed down at a glare from Kate, "just putting that out there."

"Restricted functions?" Kate asked. "What sort of restricted functions?"

"I do not know," Jenny replied, her glowing interface suddenly switching from blue to red. "Some of my databases are sealed and some of my hardware is kept offline. I assume when certain unknown conditions are met, those functions will be released to me."

"What can you tell me about Cerberus?" Kate asked.

"Much of my data on Cerberus is classified above your level of access, Captain," Jenny replied. "Do you have a specific line of inquiry?"

"How is Cerberus organized?" Kate asked. "Other than the Illusive Man, I don't see much chain of command."

"Cerberus is organized into multiple, independent, task-oriented cells," Jenny replied. "Each of which operates in isolation, most unaware of each other. Each cell's agents are led by an operator, ours, is the Lazarus Cell, directed by operator Lawson."

"How many cells are there right now?" Kate asked.

"I have a block which prevents me from answering that question." Jenny replied, her interface once again shifting from blue to red.

"How did Cerberus manage to replicate the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy without anyone finding out about it?"

"I have a block which prevents me from answering that question," Jenny replied.

It was clear to Kate that her level of access was not as high as it might have been had she been operating in the Alliance, or as a Council Spectre. Apparently the Illusive Man only trusted _her_ so far as well.

"That's all for now," she stated.

"Affirmative, Captain," Jenny replied, "logging you out."

"Never thought we'd be working for the bad guys, huh, Captain?" Ryan replied after Jenny's avatar disappeared.

Kate turned on her heel and left the cockpit, Ryan's last comment not sitting well with her as she made her way back through the CIC to the lift. She needed to breathe... needed to be... elsewhere.

"Hastings," Kate commanded on her way through the CIC, "go to silent running and set course for the nearest relay to Omega, inform me when we reach direct hailing range. You have the deck."

* * *

 **Omega  
Two days later**

The outlaw space station known as Omega sat almost dead center between the planets Urdak and Imorkan orbiting Sahrabarik, a small star deep in the Terminus Systems. Originally an asteroid rich in element zero, Omega was briefly mined in ages past by the Protheans, who eventually abandoned it due to its thick crust which had been impenetrable even to their advanced technology. Centuries past - before the dawn of human civilization - Omega had already become a major hub of narcotics, weapons, and eezo trafficking without so much as a pretense of civilian government or military control. Often described as the Terminus Systems' dark, twisted counterpart to the Citadel.

Richard Castle had found himself doing business on the station under one alias or another often enough to have staked out a private booth in the small coffee house in which he sat. Though there weren't a lot of human run businesses on Omega, this one managed to survive thanks in no small part to his patronage, after he had _"negotiated"_ a reasonable rate for the owner's protection fee. The service was sketchy at best, the food, terrible, but its truly redeeming quality was that it made decent coffee and played the Alliance News Network more often than the pirate radio run by a Batarian who's only claim to survival was that Aria hadn't discovered his identity yet.

 _"Captain Theresa Beckett has turned down an admiral's star and will remain in command of the Alliance Dreadnought Orizaba,"_ the news feed reported. _"The captain deemed her promotion to be a political ploy by the Alliance Parliament to whitewash their denouncement of her niece and stated on the record that she could best honor Captain Kate Beckett's legacy by captaining a ship."_

" _Good on her,"_ Castle thought darkly to himself. The Alliance Parliament had badmouthed his wife a few times too often when he was in no condition to do anything about it, fucking cowards. He'd heard some pretty damaging information had hit the extranet about the two loudest of them - after which they had resigned and disappeared from public life. It felt good for him to know he wasn't the only one with a long memory and a sense of personal honor.

He'd never met Kate's Aunt Theresa in the flesh. The Orizaba battle group had been dispatched to escort the Destiny Ascension and the Neframe back to Thessia as a gesture of goodwill following the Battle of the Citadel and couldn't attend their wedding. However, a very sternly worded vid-mail package had been forwarded to his private account in which she'd warned him to _'do right by my Katie... or else'_ had been quite an eye-opener. She was a formidable woman, much like Kate.

" _Give em hell, Ma'am"_ he thought to himself. If Alexis turned out even half as tough as the Beckett women, he would be twice as proud of her as he already was.

* * *

 **That same moment:  
ISV Normandy**

Kate wandered her new ship, occasionally passing crew members all of whom saluted and stepped aside to let her pass – as they would have on an Alliance warship – which, though familiar, brought her little comfort. _"How many of these people are in this mess because Cerberus dropped my name?"_ she thought to herself. She barely paid attention to where she was going, until she found herself at the hatch to the med bay. Before she knew it, the door slid open to reveal Lanie Parrish.

"Girlfriend," she said, "If I hadn't seen your medical records for myself, you'd have scared the shit outta me!"

An hour later, the two of them were in the Captain's cabin. Kate sat on the comfortable couch, her boots on the floor as Lanie poured her another drink of wine. She'd spent the better part of the past forty five minutes telling Lanie how she had come to be back among he living. Though Kate had not dared to ask, Lanie reciprocated.

"After the Normandy was lost," Lanie offered, "the surviving crew was reassigned, though it was clear that they wanted us as far out of the public eye as possible, given some of our assignments. I was transferred to the Mars Naval Medical Center. A respectably, boring position, mind you, just not on a warship. I'm too used to working in space, girfriend, life was too static and boring at a dirtside hospital. I didn't realize how much I missed the hum of the engines or the vibration of the deck plates until I spent a year and a half listening to whiny, rear echelon motherfuckers complaining about bad golf scores and tennis elbow. When Cerberus called and told me about the mission, I practically jumped at the chance to do some real good."

"I imagine so," Kate replied after taking a generous sip from her glass of wine. "I know why I'm mixed up in this, but you're not exactly the Cerberus type."

"I'm not here for Cerberus, I'm here for you," Lanie replied, her face softening as she regarded her friend who was clearly surrounded by some serious shit. On a mission that may be crucial to the survival of the human race, the only reason I can think of why you'd give this... Illusive Man - or Cerberus - the time of day. I know you Kate, I have faith you're dealings with them for a damn good reason."

"There's a good chance this will be a one way trip, Lanie." Kate whispered, "you up for that?"

"I've been through the Skyllian Blitz and the Battle of Torfan. We made it through the battle of the Citadel and the destruction of the original Normandy. You and this crew need a good doctor and I'm the best. I don't regret a damn thing."

"Captain, CIC," Hastings voice came over the intercom, "we've cleared the relay to Omega and have secured from silent running. After a little haggling from Yeoman Ellis, we've been granted docking clearance and a berth under an assumed name."

"Acknowledged, Hastings," Kate replied. "Instruct... Jenny... to set up anti-intrusion countermeasures when we dock and have Miranda get suited up. Time to go find Dr. Solus."

"Aye Captain," Hastings signed off before cutting the intercom.

Kate stepped into her bathroom to take a pill to counteract the effects of the two glasses of wine she'd consumed with Lanie and came out dressed in her battle armor.

"Time for me to go to work," she said to Lanie. "We'll do this again sometime, okay?"

Lanie nodded and headed for the door as Kate finished getting ready.

* * *

ISV Normandy slid into a docking berth on Omega - which Kate was certain had seen better days centuries ago - and as soon as she and Miranda stepped out of the airlock, she was met with a cacophony of music, advertisements and other goings on.

"Omega," Miranda snorted, "what a piss-hole. I've had to come here on business for the Illusive Man before. Every time I leave I feel like I need to take a long hot shower... even after full-spectrum decontamination."

Out of the confusing din of the gritty shipyard, a salarian appeared as if from out of nowhere. Though Kate was certain he was not Mordin Solus – this one was far too young for the hyper-metabolic amphibian race - he held his arms open wide with apparent good cheer, which was out of place given the fact that Kate had just stepped out of a warship. Though Kate wasn't as astute to salarian body language as she was with humans and turians, it was clear this one was not to be trusted. She wondered how many travelers to Omega he'd led into a dark alley to be mugged, sold into slavery... or worse.

"Welcome to Omega!" the Salarian said, "you're new here, aren't you? I can always tell. Allow me to..."

The Salarian was cut off by the appearance of a batarian in dark colored body armor.

"Oh... hello Mocklan!" the salarian stuttered. "I was just..."

"Leave, Fargut," The Batarian rumbled menacingly. "Now." Kate couldn't tell if Fargut was the salarian's name, or just some Batarian epithet she was unfamiliar with, but the amphibian was clearly intimidated enough that he didn't seem to care.

"Of course, Mocklan," he spluttered meekly, "anything she wants."

"Blasted scavengers," Mocklan grumbled as "Fargut" beat a hasty retreat, disappearing as quickly as he arrived. "On behalf of Aria T'Loak,, welcome to Omega, Captain Beckett."

"You know who I am?" Kate replied, unsure if the gruff Batarian was much of an improvement over the Salarian he had sent packing.

"Of course," the batarian replied, "we had your ship tagged the minute you entered the Terminus Systems. You're not as subtle as you think."

 _'So much for keeping my arrival on Omega or my Cerberus affiliation quiet,'_ she thought to herself.

"Aria wants to know what brings a dead Spectre to Omega on a Cerberus-tagged frigate," Mocklan continued, "I suggest you go to Afterlife – now - and present yourself."

"Cut the attitude," Kate snapped, "I'm not here to cause problems for your boss."

"Things tend to explode... violently around you, Beckett, you can't blame Aria for wanting to know why you're here," Mocklan shot back, before turning to stalk away. "Afterlife. Now."

* * *

Being a former cop, Kate rankled at the very _idea_ of a criminal commanding her to do _anything_. Even one as powerful as Aria T'Loak. She felt the almost childish urge to do something, anything first - if only to quietly spite her a little, even though the asari was likely her best shot at finding Dr. Solus.

On her way through the dingy, run down series of shops and businesses which passed for Omega's main promenade, Kate passed an open air cafe and smelled the closest thing to the Kona coffee Castle used to make for her since she'd returned to the land of the living. The scent of it was an olfactory siren's song that drew her inside to place an order at the counter.

No sooner had she taken her first sip, her eyes closing involuntarily as if it was the ambrosia of the gods, leading her to thoughts of better times when she heard a very familiar voice coming from behind her, as if from her dreams.

"Kate?"

* * *

 ** _**Author's Note** I'd say I was sorry for the cliffhanger, but I'm not and my mother taught me not to tell lies. I'd been planning this little cliffy from the get-go. Yes, I am a sad, evil little man. But what comes next will set up the whole next chapter. Buckle up, there's more relationship angst to come. Just bear in mind that I don't do breakup fics and prepare for a bumpy ride.  
_**


	5. Dr Solus, I presume?

**Chapter Five  
Dr Solus, I presume?**

* * *

" _My bed is now a cylinder of steel  
Cold and hard and shiny, to match the way I feel  
The dust in here is like a burning wind  
Black as coal and thunder, dark as all my sins"  
_Lera Lynn: "It Only Takes One Shot"

* * *

 _Previously_

 _No sooner had she taken her first sip, her eyes closing involuntarily as if it was the ambrosia of the gods, leading her to thoughts of better times when she heard a very familiar voice coming from behind her, as if from her dreams._

 _"Kate?"_

* * *

Castle couldn't allow himself to believe it was her at first. That it was really her standing there in front of him. It had to be some sort of trick - either illusion or delusion, he wasn't sure - but due to the cipher's " _gift"_ to read biological markers, his confusion didn't last. He would have known instantly if this was some doppelganger wearing her face. Her scent, her body language, the outer periphery of her thoughts, made the truth of who she was as maddeningly clear as day. This conversely made him even angrier, even though this was the very thing he'd dreamed of since he'd buried her empty coffin two years ago.

"Castle?" she breathed when she saw him, a smile blooming on her face fleetingly until her eyes met his and she saw the anger and other conflicting emotions rising in him, warring for control. It was only then that she truly took him in. He was much more severe than the Richard Castle she remembered, the one she'd married. From his shorter-cropped haircut, to the blood red and black pattern-disruptive paint scheme on his decidedly non-regulation armored hard-suit he practically radiated harsh, nearly Spartan-like severity.

He hesitated while she waited for him to respond, only to set his shoulders and walk past her.

"Castle, wait." she called out. He stopped but didn't turn to look at her, as if the very sight of her caused him pain.

"I know you must be hurt and angry," Kate began, choosing her words carefully.

"Oh, you're damn right, I'm angry," Castle replied, though he wasn't certain whom or what he was angry with any longer, only that it was white hot and burning a hole in his guts. "I listened to you die out there, did you know that? Listened to your breathing on that goddamned comm channel til you stopped. Do you know what that's like? Being able to do nothing but sit helplessly while the life drains out of somebody you... love?"

His back was still turned to her, Kate wasn't sure if it was out of anger, or to protect himself from a reality he wasn't yet ready to process.

"Castle, please... look at me," she pleaded, which got him to reluctantly turn around. "I'm not sure what happened during the last two years. I woke up less than a week ago, and none of this seems real to me yet. It's like a bad dream I can't wake up from. The people who brought me back, Cerberus, they want something from me. They have a line on the colony attacks, that it's connected to the Reapers somehow. I want you with me... but... as much as I need my partner, I couldn't speak for you."

"I can't," Rick said, not letting on that his comm was silently announcing an update on Archangel's whereabouts.

"Castle - " she exhaled in desperation.

"Two years, Kate."

"I know. I - I can't imagine"

"No, you can't," he sighed. "Cerberus? Really?"

"I know - " Kate shook her head. "I don't trust them either, but -"

"No, I just - "Rick said, backing away, shaking his head.

She followed him.

"I can't – I can't do this… with you right now," he said. "I… I can barely wrap my brain around the idea that you're alive."

"But I am," she whispered, trying to smile, though tears threatened to stop her. She reached over to touch him. He closed his eyes when she did and it seemed like the anger was losing the war behind his eyes, at least for a moment.

"No," he said finally, peeling her hand off him. "It's... it's just too much. I need some time."

"How... how much time?" Kate choked out. Until that moment it hadn't been real to her how long she'd been gone. She'd wanted those two lost years of her life to be a lie. A trick by the Illusive Man to cut her off from her support system so she'd have to depend solely on his organization, but Castle had lived through every day of it and had come out scarred in ways she couldn't begin to fathom.

"I don't know," Castle replied as he turned back toward the street, "I have some business of my own to complete here and then... I just need to figure this out for myself. Get my bearings. I... I'm sorry."

The sight of his retreating back, stiff with tension and hurt she could plainly see - even through the dark red and black color scheme of his armor - made the two years she had been dead to the galaxy real to her in a way nothing else could have. Forced her to see how much damage her _"death"_ had caused the people she loved. The reality of the past two years hadn't been her fault, not really, but she still felt responsible for the light that was missing in her husband's tired, empty eyes. She'd track down Dr. Solus, do her best to concentrate on the mission and hope that eventually Castle would come back to her. She needed his help, needed somebody she could trust to have her back in this mess. Needed him.

"Come on," Miranda whispered, tugging at her arm gently, showing a lot more compassion than Kate expected, "let's go see if Aria can point us in the right direction."

* * *

The meeting with Aria had gone about as well as Kate had expected from a high-level crime boss. Though not entirely the thug that she'd expected, the woman was incredibly self centered, possessive and antagonistic for the generally much more diplomatic asari. At least, the asari Kate had met, anyway. For all of Aria's long-winded, self serving bluster, however, she had been surprisingly helpful. Much more so than Administrator Annoleis had been on Noveria, at least. Though it was clear that, like him, Aria was likely only accommodating her because she wanted the formerly dead Spectre out of her tentacled scalp.

Aria's men guarding the plague zone in the Gozu district had tripped all over themselves to let Kate and Miranda into the district after a few well-placed threats, followed by an artfully implied name drop from Miranda. Since humans seemed to be immune to said plague, there shouldn't be too much trouble, other than the Blue Suns and a few Vorcha. On their way through the outer rim of the district, they found few, if any, of its regular inhabitants, but they did find more than one pyre that reeked of burning flesh. After her time as a homicide cop Kate would recognize the stench anywhere, even though the bodies weren't human.

"They must be trying to control the spread of the plague," Miranda muttered, trying not to gag.

"Doesn't seem to be working," Kate replied. "We need more information on what's going on here."

They hadn't had to search long before they found a batarian nearly collapsed by the door to what was likely his home, coughing and barely conscious. Or so they thought, until he sat up, holding a pistol in his shaking hand.

"Humans," the batarian muttered between bouts of coughing, though Kate wasn't certain he could hit anything with the pistol or even pull the trigger, the way the coughing fits bent him over double with nearly every wheezing breath. "I should have guessed... bad enough you infect us with your plague... but now you don't even have the... basic decency to wait until I'm dead before you come to steal my possessions."

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Kate asked. She wasn't generally fond of batarians, but even they didn't deserve to die like this.

"Get away from me... _human_ ," the batarian wheezed, gesticulating wildly with the pistol, "your kind has done too much already! Your _plague_... did this to me. Your feigned pity is... the... final insult."

"Humans didn't create this plague," Kate hissed back, not sure she believed that herself, given Cerberus' past. She'd read the reports Commander Shepard had filed of their misdeeds out on the frontier. Their involvement in the death of Admiral Kahoku, experiments involving both Thresher Maws and Rachni drones, kidnapping children for hellhole biotic experiments, it seemed like they were capable of just about any sort of scientific atrocity. A plague that humans were immune to, but painfully lethal to nearly every other form of advanced sapient life would be well within their wheelhouse. Only... the timing of the plague made no sense, with the Reapers breathing down their necks and Cerberus seeking to make a new name for themselves as the saviors of humanity. Were it not for the reaper threat, she had no doubt she would have jumped ship by now.

"Lies drip from your mouth like the blood from my sores," the batarian wheezed in reply, gesticulating with the pistol toward the bodies burning not far away. "The truth is there for all to see. Yours is the only species that doesn't succumb... yours and the wretched Vorcha."

"Do you know where I can find a salarian named Mordin Solus?" Kate asked when it became clear she wasn't going to change the poor bastard's mind.

"Humans looking for the human sympathizer," the batarian spat, "I hope the cursed Vorcha burn him and his clinic to the ground. I hope you... I hope..."

The batarian's reply was cut short by another round of wheezing, coughing fits.

"Damn you... can't... breathe..." he choked.

"Hey... stay with me," Kate replied, applying medi-gel and using her omni-tool to activate it, "this won't cure the plague, but it should help ease the symptoms for a bit."

The batarian slowly stopped coughing and put the pistol away as he rose unsteadily to his feet.

"You... you helped me," he wheezed, "why?"

"I don't know it I can find a cure for this plague, but I'm going to try," Kate replied.

"Your words sound... sincere," the batarian whispered, his throat raspy from coughing, "maybe it's the fever, but... I _almost_ believe you. What do you wish to know?"

"What can you tell me about this outbreak?" Kate asked.

"The plague is too potent, too virulent to be a naturally occurring virus," he replied, betraying a at least some scientific knowledge "airborne transmission with a near perfect mortality rate across multiple species? Had to be grown in a lab. Humans and Vorcha are the only species not effected. Vorcha are naturally immune to disease, but they're scavengers... barely enough brainpower to handle a gun, let alone make a disease like this. I'm sorry human, you may not want to believe it, but all the evidence points to your species."

"What about Mordin Solus?" Kate asked.

"He runs a clinic... on the far side of the district," he replied. "Taking in refugees... offering to help plague victims. I was afraid to go to him before... he's dangerous. The Blue Suns tried to press him for protection money shortly after the plague hit and he killed them without batting an eye. Stunned them with some sort of... toxin, then gunned them down in the street. He's not just a doctor. Doctors don't... execute people and display their bodies as a warning."

"When I find him, I'll tell him about you," Kate replied after digesting what the batarian had said about Dr. Solus. She could see why The Illusive Man wanted him for the team, he was both brilliant and ruthlessly efficient. "If he has a cure, or a treatment, I'll see to it somebody gets it to you."

"Thank you," he replied, coughing lightly, "My time is... running short, but at least... you have given me a... flicker of hope... to brighten the darkness of my final hours. Goodbye, human."

The two of them turned and walked away while the batarian plague victim dragged himself back into his home and barred the door. As soon as he was out of earshot, Kate appraised Miranda with an arched eyebrow.

"Our sources said he may or may not have spent several years in the Salarian Special Tasks Group," Miranda offered, "their version of Special Forces. His file, what we could get of it was heavily redacted, but clearly they trained him to take care of himself."

Though they could hear gunfire off in the distance, it was clear the fighting had already died down in this part of the district. The Blue Suns (mostly Turians and Batarians here on Omega) were as aggressively killing humans as they were fighting back against the vorcha, but the opportunistic scavengers clearly had them on the ropes, as there were a lot more bodies wearing blue and white painted mercenary armor than dead vorcha on their way to Mordin's clinic.

"Professor Mordin Solus?" Kate asked after walking in the door.

"Greetings human," Mordin stated then kept right on talking, not letting Kate get in a word edgewise. "Curious, don't recognize you from district... too well-armed for refugees... no mercenary uniforms, quarantine still in effect... here for something else. Vorcha, maybe? Crew to clean them out? Unlikely. Vorcha a symptom, not a cause. The plague? Investigating use as bio-weapon? No, you're soldiers, not scientists too many weapons, not enough data gathering equipment."

"Are you done?" Kate asked, before the salarian could butt in. "I'm Kate Beckett, Captain of the ISV Normandy. Miranda and I came looking for you. We're on an important mission and we need your help."

"Mission?" Dr. Solus replied. "What mission? No...no no, too busy. Clinic understaffed... plague spreading too fast. Who sent you?"

"Ever heard of an organization called Cerberus?" Kate asked, though it was clear from Miranda's expression that she would have preferred Cerberus' name kept out of the discussion.

"Crossed paths on occasion," Mordin replied, slowing his train of thought for the first time since they'd met him, "thought they only worked with humans."

"This mission reaches far beyond mere human interests, Dr. Solus," Miranda replied, eyeing Kate with an arched eyebrow of her own, "even Cerberus understands that we all need to work together to take down the Collectors."

"Collectors... interesting," Mordin noted, "plague hitting these slums is engineered. Collectors one of few groups with technology to design it. Our goals my be similar... but must stop plague first... already found cure... need to distribute it at environmental control center. Vorcha guarding it. Will need to kill them."

"Have you had any trouble here at the clinic?" Kate asked, "are you secure here?"

"Nothing major," Mordin replied, "Blue Suns came for humans, made threats, killed them before things escalated."

"For a doctor, you seem awfully calm about taking out a squad of mercs," Kate stated.

"Wasn't always a doctor," Mordin replied with a shrug, the Carnifax hand cannon on his right hip and machine pistol at his left on clear display, "some work with Salarian Tasks Group, can handle myself. Advantage of being Salarian. Turians, Krogan, Vorcha... all obvious threats. Never see me coming."

"What can you tell me about this plague?" Kate asked.

"Advanced design," Mordin replied, "suspected Collectors before you mentioned them. Purpose seems experimental. Destroys respiratory systems with harmful genetic mutations. Makes sense to avoid humans. Unnecessary to force genetic mutation on human genetic structure for sake of variance. Possible goal of virus. Testing viable mutation levels in various species. Horrific, but feasible for collectors. Humans known to have diverse genetic background. Wider range than other sapient races. Makes sense as control group."

"How do the Vorcha fit into all this?" Kate asked.

"Cowardly, opportunistic scavengers," Mordin spat with clear disgust, "not tactical or strategic thinkers, or even thinkers at all. Scale of attack unusual for them. Suspect Vorcha working for Collectors. Distributing plague, gathering data. No proof, but theory fits evidence."

Before he could say much more, the overhead vents suddenly shut down.

"That didn't sound good," Miranda noted, blatantly stating the obvious.

"Vorcha have shut down environmental systems... trying to kill everyone. Need to get power back on before entire district suffocates," Mordin reported after checking his terminal, then turned and handed them several items - notably two large vials and an OSD from an omni-tool. "Here, take plague cure. Add this to the atmosphere processor... fans will distribute. Bonus in good faith, equipment and security codes from Blue Suns mercs. May come in handy against Vorcha."

"I found a batarian plague victim," Kate added, "near the entrance to the district. Can you send somebody to help him? The way back should be safe enough."

"Hmm... risky," Mordin replied, "Vorcha, Blue Suns still battling, district not secure. Will see what I can do."

Before more could be said, Mordin was summoned back to his work as two humans were brought in with critical injuries.

"Code blue! Code blue…!" they heard him shout as they moved toward the exit.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in the spaceport**

"She went _where_?" Castle hissed into his comm, not bothering to mask the anger in his voice. He'd been taking a circuitous route back to Serenity to avoid being followed after the less than happy reunion with his wife. Part of him had almost hoped some of the station's lowlife scum would step up to him and try... so he could shake the rage out of his system. As long as they weren't Aria's people, nobody on the station would care. Hell from what he'd been told, " _Archangel"_ had pretty much made a living putting some of the worst of them down and apparently Aria hadn't even so much as batted a well-groomed eyelash.

"The plague zone, sir," Zoe replied. "She may be tracking down the only other name that popped out of Cerberus' tagged extranet traffic. Dr. Mordin Solus, former STG operative. Got his medical license on Sur'kesh shortly after mustering out. He's running a free clinic out of the Gozu district. Not even Cerberus could get into an STG secure database without leaving some sorta footprint, though it isn't clear whether they got any more than we did from their database and Councilor Montgomery asked them nicely. Aside from his name and last known location, Solus' STG file is heavily redacted. Whatever he was up to, the Salarian Union doesn't want it getting out, even at the Council level."

"You and Jayne meet me at the entrance to the plague zone," Castle ordered tersely into his suit mic as he turned back toward the habitat ring. "Full arms. If the dockyard guards give you any trouble, Jayne has my authorization to snap them in half. I aim to misbehave."

"Sir, yes sir," Zoe replied before he cut the channel.

"Sgt Cobb," Zoe barked into Serenity's intercom.

"I'm in my bunk," came the sleep-slurred reply from Staff Sgt. Jayne Cobb moments later.

"Suit up and report to the lock in five," Zoe commanded sharply. "If you leave _any_ ordinance in the arms locker I will snap you back so hard you'll think it was hell week in boot again."

Jayne snapped up from his bunk - suddenly fully awake - hurriedly fumbling for his BDU's and battle armor.

"Aye, aye ma'am," he husked as he skinned into his jumpsuit, "let's be bad guys."

* * *

After departing Dr. Solus' clinic, the route had been surprisingly clear of merc or Vorcha activity until they reached the outer perimeter of the district's life support plant. Kate and Miranda took cover on either side of the heavy door. At a nod from Kate, Miranda keyed the door to slide open and the two women went in shooting, each covering a side of the room.

The Vorcha " _Boom Squad"_ held the advantage of numbers, firepower and knowledge of the terrain, but they weren't strategic or tactical thinkers nor were any of them terribly bright. They were canon fodder, a blunt instrument meant to screen the Blood Pack troopers of Clan Weyrlock and die very loudly. The krogan who was their nominal commander - who likely would have coordinated their defense under optimal conditions - was collapsed behind some crates, too sick from the plague to even defend himself effectively.

The leaderless Vorcha squad's recklessly aggressive posture and lack of unit coordination left their position badly exposed and simultaneously allowed Kate and Miranda access to both cover and converging fields of fire. Their relatively heavy squad was decimated quickly, only two of the twenty member unit escaped to warn the others.

After policing the bodies for useful intel - of which there was none - and acquiring an assault rifle for Miranda, they moved deeper into Vorcha held territory. Not a hundred paces further down the corridor they were stopped dead in their tracks by another Vorcha Boom Squad, this one apparently less suicidal than the last one. Whoever was in charge of this operation had obviously set up the defense well. Three Vorcha were raining assault rifle down on them from entrenched positions on the upper balcony.

What Kate didn't see was the vorcha on the far corner opposite from their position.

One of the two boom squad members who'd survived Kate and Miranda's initial assault had broken out the heavy ordinance. In his unfettered rage-induced tunnel vision he sighted in on Kate's head with the scope of the ML-77 rocket launcher and waited for the lock-on tone. So fixated on his target was he, that he missed the faint blue glow in the corridor behind him shortly before the blue tendrils of biotic energy ensnared him, slammed his body into the ceiling with a sickening crunch, then with even more force back onto the deck and again into the ceiling before his shattered body crumpled back onto the deck with every bone in his body crushed.

Castle gave the dead Vorcha scant notice as he removed the rocket launcher's eezo core -rendering it inert - then continued along the upper companionway, doing his best to keep out of sight as he and Jayne took out the other three Vorcha on the balcony. Though every fiber of his being wanted to follow Kate and take up the fight at her side again, he knew he was needed elsewhere.

The Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns mercenary groups had found " _Archangel's"_ hideout and it was only a matter of time before they massed their forces and nailed the coffin shut. Their reluctance to trust each other had been the only reason it had taken them this long to mobilize. As much as Castle hated it, the mission had to come first. He knew which choice Kate would make in his place, so he motioned for Jayne to move out, albeit reluctantly.

* * *

When the massed fire from the upper balcony suddenly silenced, Kate and Miranda were able to mop up the rest of the Vorcha between them and the life support center. As they keyed the door and entered dynamically, a single Vorcha – who clearly saw himself as in charge apparently approached as if to parley.

"You no come here!" the vorcha shouted in broken English, "we shut down machines! Break fans! Everyone choke and die! Then collectors make us strong!"

Apparently the collectors were equal opportunity assholes, not to mention the masterminds behind the plague, though Kate couldn't determine if the backlash against humans on Omega was an intended consequence or simply an unanticipated side effect of human immunity.

"What do the Collectors want?" Kate asked sharply, eliciting a loud growl from the vorcha, her rifle never wavering from center mass.

"Collectors want plague!" the vorcha shouted back, "You work for doctor! You come to turn on machines! Put cure in air! We kill you first!"

Before the Vorcha could signal for renewed hostilities, a shot rang out from the upper balcony and his head exploded. In the resulting confusion, the few remaining Vorcha were easy prey for Miranda's biotics and Kate's rifle. By the time the echoes faded, Zoe had packed up her sniper rifle and disappeared. Though Kate was momentarily confused at the sudden assistance she had other concerns, namely getting the cure in place and the life support for the district back on-line.

With that completed, they collected Doctor Solus at his lab, who left the clinic in the hands of his assistant, Daniel and returned to the ship and departed Omega. Kate had hoped that her husband would be waiting for her at the docks, but sadly he hadn't showed. She had to get to the Citadel, see if she could get some more reliable intel than what Cerberus was giving her. Apparently their intel was faulty as Archangel was reported killed on Omega's news net.

"Signal Contact!" the young woman at the LIDAR console shouted, which snapped Kate back to the world around her.

"Confirmed," Hastings added, "Bearing one two zero. Just outside the PNR zone of the mass relay."

Kate's head turned on a swivel back toward the LIDAR operator, who did not wait for the command.

"Smaller that us," she reported, "silhouette reads as an old Gallipoli class troop transport, but heavily modified. Damn thing just popped out of nowhere. They've painted us with LIDAR but no weapons lock."

"I'm reading an Alliance IFF transponder," Hastings reported, "Ship's name comes back as ISV Serenity Valley. Her comm officer is requesting permission to come alongside and lock on. That they have some "cargo" to transfer to us."

"Hastings," Kate replied, "tell them permission granted at the forward lock, and have LT report to the CIC with his sidearm," Kate commanded.

By the time LT reported to the CIC, Kate could hear the familiar clang that announced that Serenity had extended her docking port and achieved hard seal on the forward airlock just behind the flying bridge.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain," Richard Castle requested, a Turian standing behind him in hastily repainted armor. "Hope you don't mind that I brought a friend."

Kate couldn't help the smile that slipped across her face, barely noticing that the Turian was taking off his helmet.

"Permission granted, Castle," Kate responded, waving LT away just before she looked up at the Turian in shocked recognition.

"Garrus?"

* * *

 _ **** Author's note** Sorry this took me so long. I don't know what's worse, when I can't come up with the words at all, or when they come in fits and starts. Been driving me nuts. The fact that Mass Effect: Andromeda just came out has proved to be quite the distraction as well. Thank you to Cofkett for cleaning up my dialog mess at the beginning.  
**_

 _ **Relationship-wise, things will proceed much as they did in season seven after "Driven" and "Montreal", (other than the fact that they're already married) but progress will be made.**_

 _ **The story continues.**_


	6. Politics As Usual

**Chapter Six  
Politics As Usual**

* * *

" _Well you can tell ev'ryone I'm a down disgrace  
Drag my name all over the place.  
I don't care anymore"._  
Phil Collins: "I Don't Care Anymore"

* * *

 _Previously:_

" _Permission to come aboard, Captain," Richard Castle requested, a Turian standing behind him in hastily painted armor. "Hope you don't mind, but I brought a friend."_

 _Kate couldn't help the smile that slipped across her face, barely noticing that the Turian was taking off his helmet. "Permission granted, Castle," she responded, waving LT away just before she looked up at the Turian in shocked recognition._

 _"Garrus?"_

* * *

Kate was noticeably distracted by Castle walking at her side as if the past two years had never happened while she gave him and Garrus Vakarian the nickel tour of the new Normandy, firing the turian questions as they walked.

"Why Archangel?" was the first one that slipped out.

"Just a name the people of Omega gave me," Garrus replied sarcastically, "for all of my good deeds."

Though he answered her question without reservation, he seemed rather subdued compared to the passionate former C-Sec officer she remembered. _'Have the past two years been this rough on everybody?'_ she thought to herself.

As the conversation drifted further into the more current events of his quasi-mercenary activities on Omega, she couldn't help asking the one question which even Castle had avoided.

"How did you manage to piss off the three most powerful mercenary organizations in the Terminus Systems?" she asked.

"It wasn't easy," Garrus replied, a little of his old self slipping through the dark cloud of melancholy that clung to him, "I really had to work at it."

It took a little persuasion, and it came in fits and starts, but by the time they reached the engineering deck, Garrus had been able to get the whole story out about his activities since the Normandy attack.

Courtesy of some string-pulling by his father, he had drifted back to C-Sec for a time, though it had soon become clear to him that the mountain of red tape had not only remained but multiplied. He and his former partner, Sidonis, had decided that if the Council wasn't going do anything about the rampant crime in Citadel Space, then _they'd_ do it themselves, so they filed their papers and walked. After putting down a group of eezo smugglers hard on Omega, they attracted a following of like-minded individuals who had suffered under the thumb of one Terminus mercenary gang or another on Omega. A small squad soon formed around him and "Archangel" had been born.

For nearly a year and a half, they'd harassed the criminal element of Omega, bringing "law and order" to the lawless station their way, funded by the ill-gotten gains "liberated" from criminal gangs they preyed upon. For a time it had felt good to be doing something, believing they were truly making a dent - or so he'd thought at the time. None of them had noticed when Sidonis first began to get sticky fingers so it had come as a complete shock when he finally betrayed them. Leading to the predicament that Castle had rescued him from. It eased Kate's mind a fraction that he truly did have a mission to complete and hadn't just been putting her off.

Though the details had been sketchy at best, it was clear that there was a lot that Garrus had left out. Kate could see it in the depressed slump of his shoulders, but she didn't press him for more. Nor did she try to stop him when he abruptly begged off the tour near the access bay for the Thannix cannon, claiming a need to _"calibrate something"_. She had long ago come to realize that performing such maintenance gave him something to focus on and let him make his retreat. He would tell her more when he was ready.

* * *

When She and Castle finally reached the Captain's quarters, the artificially light banter over the vices and virtues of the SR2 compared to the SR1 slowly petered out. There was no question of where her husband would be staying and both of them knew it. Kate pointed out the facilities and allowed him some privacy to change into softer clothing, then changed herself while she was waiting.

"I feel like we were only apart for a few days," Kate whispered, when he finally emerged from the bathroom. "Like it hasn't been so long ago since we slept in the same bed. But for you it must seem like a lifetime."

"Yeah, it does," Castle replied softly

"How did you not lose hope?" Kate asked.

"I did... for a while," Castle replied. "But I... I swore to myself I'd finish what you started, lost myself to it for a while really, if only to hang on to some small part of you... keep your spirit alive."

"Like what?" Kate whispered, sitting next to him on the bed.

"It's … stupid. It really doesn't matter now," Castle replied.

"No, I'd like to know," she pressed.

"I... kept these with me," Castle offered after a short silence before he removed a small pouch from around his neck and gently dumped the contents – Kate's father's watch and her mothers ring- into her cupped hands. "I felt that if I looked at them often enough, it would keep you with me."

"I guess it worked," Kate replied, eyes fixed upon the two most prized possessions of her past as she turned them over in her hands.

"I wouldn't let anyone near them," Castle continued. "A keeper turned up in my office on the Citadel after I went back... began rearranging the furniture like they do sometimes. I freaked out and almost dropped a singularity on it."

They both laughed softly, though there was little mirth in it which soon faded into a look of utter longing between them. Beckett broke the stillness first to lean into him and bury her face in his chest. It took a moment or two, but Castle slowly wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry, Castle," Kate whispered, "for everything I put you through."

"It's not your fault," Castle whispered, "you didn't know."

"I was in and out of consciousness toward the end of it, but I don't remember much of anything about the last two years," Kate whispered, wiping at tears that refused to stop, but didn't pull away. "Even now, it feels like a bad dream, but there's no way I wouldn't have missed you."

"Kate, had I known you were alive, that you were out there somewhere, I would have come for you," Castle whispered with absolute certainty. "No power in the 'verse could have stopped me."

After a brief silence in which they simply held each other, she broke the silence again.

"We can't just pick up where we left off, can we?" Kate asked.

"As if nothing happened?" Castle replied softly. "No, but we'll get there. We'll find our way home."

They fell into a companionable silence, having for the moment run out of words. Only two long separated souls now reunited. The rest would have to come in time.

* * *

 **The Following Afternoon**

The Widow System was a quiet, lonely nearly empty star system containing only the ancient star by the same name, with a refueling station in close orbit. Devoid of any naturally formed planetary bodies, the system was dominated by the roiling dust and gasses of the Serpent Nebula surrounding the ancient space station known as the Citadel, its ward arms spread wide open as they had been for their past two years after the attack by Nazara and the geth fleet. Though not visible to the naked eye, hundreds of keepers - more than had been seen on the station for over two thousand years – swarmed over the station like an army of ants, tirelessly working to repair the damage from what had since been immortalized as the "Battle of the Citadel".

Few aside the station's true builders and the enigmatic keepers themselves had any inkling of the station's correct age, or the darker, more menacing purpose behind its construction. The keepers own forgotten origins lost to the depths of time, their voices silenced for millennia along with the unknown world from which they sprang. Everything they may have once been reduced to the subservient caretakers of over seven billion metric tons of spinning metal all alone in the night.

The routine of the Citadel fleet was suddenly broken by the activation of one of several mass relay hubs in the outer ring of the system's Oort cloud announcing the arrival of an unscheduled vessel. Before ISV Normandy burst from one of several mass relay hubs and turned gracefully toward the edge of the Serpent Nebula on a direct course for the Citadel.

"Citadel control, this is ISV Normandy," Lt. Hastings - standing her watch as officer of the deck - stated calmly into the comm system, "requesting a vector and a berth."

"ISV Normandy, this is the Destiny Ascension," the Asari Dreadnought's comm officer replied, "your arrival is unscheduled, state the nature of your business on the Citadel."

At a nod from the Beckett, Castle stepped closer to the comm system and took over.

"This is Commander Richard Castle, military attache to Councilor Montgomery," he stated clearly, his tone taking on an air of authority even Kate had been unaware he possessed as he rattled off his service number, followed by an authorization code, "returning from detached assignment."

"Voice-print, retinal scan and ident number confirmed," the silky feminine voice of the asari officer acknowledged. "Docking authorization granted at cradle ninety four. Maintain present course and speed while I transfer you to an Alliance operator."

Castle nodded at Hastings and stepped away from the comm station as she tended to her duties. At a glance from Kate, he waved toward the Citadel now growing in the forward viewer.

"I took the liberty of calling ahead before we left the Terminus Systems," he stated. "Anderson said he'd smooth things over about docking privileges and arrange a meeting for you with the council if you wanted. Figured you'd want to sort things out."

"Thanks, Castle," Kate replied then whispered as he drew closer, "I'm not sure I'm comfortable having Cerberus as my only source of information."

Little else was spoken between them as the Normandy drew closer to the Citadel and the command crew in the CIC turned their full attention to docking procedures as the ship sedately slid into the docking cradle and followed by the low clang as the umbilical hard sealed to the forward airlock.

Castle fastened his uniform jacket and Beckett straightened hers on their way to the airlock door, where they linked arms and stepped through.

* * *

Kate was unprepared when they were stopped at a security checkpoint she didn't recall from her last visit to the station.

"It's been a couple of years since I was here last," Kate commented to the young looking human C-Sec officer on duty, "Security seems to have tightened a bit."

"After the geth attack, there was a review of security protocol," the officer replied. "A few minor changes were made to reduce the risk of geth infiltration. We apologize for the inconvenience."

"You'd think a geth would stand out," Kate quipped, rolling her eyes at the absurdity of her explanation.

"Assumptions are dangerous," the young officer replied as if Kate were a child. "Be alert, be safe."

After passing through the security cordon, they were stopped by a turian officer standing at his post by access door to Zakera Ward's precinct office. The scanner began its sweep almost immediately upon their approach, followed by an alert flagged on his console.

"Shut it down," the officer growled into the comm, clearly in communication with a supervisor. "What…? Do you seriously think…? Yeah, okay."

"Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am," the young turian offered when he looked up again. "Our scanner must be picking up some false readings. They seem to think you're... uh... dead."

"I was listed as missing in action a couple years ago," Kate replied.

"Would you mind checking in with my Captain?" the officer asked. "He can reinstate your ID's and get you back into the system. His office is straight down the squad-room the on your left," the officer added before the door slid shut behind them.

With a nod from Kate, the officer keyed his console and the access door slid open. As she made her way through Zakera Ward's precinct, she overheard snippets of conversation from the direction of the captain's office.

"You're gonna have to make him scream a little," and older man could be heard growling. "He's not gonna tell you what you want to know just because you ask."

"Yes, sir," a young human woman in C-Sec uniform standing inside the office door replied. "I... I know sir."

"If you don't have the stomach, or you're worried about being reported," the older man replied, "I can take care of it."

"No, sir!" The young officer blanched at the thinly veiled rebuke before saluting on her way out of the office, "I can handle it."

Castle and Beckett passed the young officer and Kate turned to watch her march with determination toward the interrogation rooms further down the hall. Kate's introspection on the moment was broken however as the desk sergeant waved them into the office the young woman had vacated.

"Welcome back to the Citadel, Commander Castle," Jackson Hunt offered, sparing Kate little more than a cursory nod. "I think I can see the problem, Commander, my system says Captain Beckett's supposed to be dead."

"You're not worried I'm some imposter claiming to be me?" Kate asked, remembering none too fondly the invasive scan foisted upon her before she'd been allowed to even be in the same room as Aria T'Loak on Omega.

"The Citadel has the best scanning equipment in the galaxy," Captain Hunt scoffed, his contempt for her undeniably evident, "the ones in the security cordon can sample DNA from skin _flakes_. Hell, they can even detect if you have unregistered gene mods."

"Your sergeant at the door said you could help with that," Castle interceded on Kate's behalf a sharp hint of warning in his tone. Neither he, nor Kate could comprehend the level of contempt directed at his wife which was rolling off Hunt's body language in waves. Regardless of the circumstances of her re-emergence, she was a former Spectre, not to mention the _"Hero of the Citadel"_ and entitled to at least some level of respect.

"Usually, she'd have to go through the Security Administration to reactivate her ID's," Hunt continued more smoothly, obviously taking the hint, though still refusing to acknowledge Kate directly, "then to Customs and Immigration to regain access to Citadel services, followed by a stop at Treasury with the documents from both of those in hand for the bean counters. _'Spending a year dead'_ is a popular tax dodge."

Hunt paused for effect, while Kate visibly blanched at all the running around she was going to have to do given her lack of full Spectre status before she could even get in to see the Council and conclude her business.

At a further threatening glare from Castle, however, Hunt relented.

"But, I can see Captain Beckett is a busy woman, so how about I just press this button on my console here and call we call it done?"

"Couldn't one of us get into serious trouble for that?" Kate asked. "Or both of us?"

"There's no way to fool the DNA scanners, you're you," Hunt replied, speaking directly to Kate for the first time since she and Castle had darkened his door. "Would you rather stand in long lines only to fill out reams of hard copy in order to get to the same place?"

"Not really," Kate replied, and Hunt keyed a sequence on his console, upgrading her status from "killed in action" to "alive" in less time than it had taken him to talk about it.

"Done," Hunt noted, once again ignoring Kate completely in deference to Castle. "She's good to go. Though she should probably head up to the Presidium first chance she gets. I'm sure the Council would be interested to know that one of their lost Spectres is still kicking."

"That's the plan," Castle replied, "and I should probably report in to Councilor Montgomery."

"Now, is there anything else you need?" Hunt husked as he nodded toward the door leading out into the heart of Zakera Ward. "Or can I get back to work? I have interrogations to oversee."

When the door to his office slid shut, Hunt turned his attention to the bank of monitors on his desk and brought up the feed for interrogation room two to make sure Officer Mendez wasn't in over her head.

"You think I was rude now, Captain Beckett?" he grumbled to himself as he settled in to observe the rookie C-Sec officer's efforts. "Put my son through hell like that again and I'll show you just how rude _Nemesis_ can be."

* * *

Human Councilor Roy Montgomery stood on the balcony from his Embassy Row office overlooking the lush gardens of the Presidium. Even now, the idea that Beckett had turned up alive after all this time was hard to digest. Of all the possible outcomes he had foreseen when he'd sent Castle to Omega to look into the rumors on the extranet that Captain Beckett had been seen in the Terminus Systems, alive and recruiting a crew to investigate the colony attacks, this was the only one he had not dared hope for.

He'd set up an appointment for a vidcom meeting with the rest of the Citadel Council as soon as he'd heard ISV Normandy had docked, and as fate would have it, an appropriate distraction for Commander Castle had shown up in his office just this morning. He knew how Castle would react to some of the Council's concerns and it would better for all concerned that he not be present.

He had barely shaken off his introspection on the implications of Beckett's return - much less the rumors that she was working for Cerberus, a human centric "Earth First" extremist group at best, and a terrorist organization at worst which didn't really sit well in the pit of his stomach – the very focus of his thoughts walked in the door.

"Welcome home both of you," he began, but before Castle or Beckett could respond he turned toward the former, "Mister Castle, it's about time you got back. I've got a very persistent citizen waiting in my office wanting to file a missing persons report."

Before Montgomery could offer any further comment, the door to his inner office slid open and a blur of red hair could be seen bursting from his office.

"DAD!" was all the warning Castle got before Alexis leaped at him, her arms winding around the back of his neck.

"Alexis," Castle breathed. "what are you doing here? How come you're not at school?"

"I'd heard rumors on the extranet," Alexis replied, still not releasing her grip on her father, "that Kate was seen alive on Omega. It can't be true, can it?"

"Uh... Yeah," Kate half whispered, suddenly feeling awkward and shy., "Hi ,Alexis."

Alexis turned to take in the sight of Kate Beckett wearing what appeared to be a military cut business suit and four inch heels, the girl's piercing ice blue eyes seeming to look right through her. Seeing the woman her father had mourned for the last two years standing before her in the flesh had her totally gobsmacked.

"Uh... Hi... Kate..." Alexis choked out, a dozen emotions roiling behind her blue eyes, her young mind trying to process them all. Blessedly, Montgomery interceded.

"I'm sure you and your daughter have a lot catching up to do, Commander," Montgomery offered, "how about you take her for a walk through the Presidium? The gardener there told me the Demile flowers he planted around the conduit look amazing this morning."

Suitably distracted, Castle and his daughter slipped out of the room without a word, only a backward glace at Kate who nodded her assent.

There was little delay from the closing of the office door, before the holographic display terminals – one for each council member – pinged for attention, then coalesced into the Asari, Turian and Salarian members of the Citadel Council.

"This meeting would be more productive if Ambassador Bracken were to join us," Asari Councilor Tevos stated without preamble, accompanied by nods from the other Councilors.

"My political advisor currently unavailable," Montgomery replied coldly, "as the Human Councilor, I represent the voice of humanity and the Alliance. Captain Beckett is here as well."

"We've heard many rumors surrounding your unexpected return," Salarian Councilor Valern declared. "Some of them are... unsettling."

"We agreed to this meeting so that you can explain your actions, Captain Beckett," Councilor Tevos added. "We owe you that much. After all, you saved our lives in the battle against Saren and his geth."

"The Collectors are abducting human colonists in the Terminus Systems," Kate replied. "Even worse, I have uncovered evidence they're working for the Reapers."

"The Terminus Systems are beyond our jurisdiction," Turian Councilor Sparatus snapped at her. "Your colonists knew this when they left Council Space."

"You're missing the important part, Sparatus," Montgomery shot back. "The _Reapers_ are involved."

"Ah, yes the _Reapers_ " Sparatus replied contemptuously, literally making air quotes with the two fingers of his hands, "the immortal race of sentient starships allegedly waiting in dark space. We have dismissed that claim."

Montgomery could sense Kate tensing to respond, but stopped her with hand to her arm, "Kate, no one else encountered the VI on Ilos that told you the truth about the Reapers and only you and Castle ever spoke to Sovereign. I believe you, but without evidence from another source, the others still believe that Saren was behind the geth attacks."

"All you have to do is look at the remains of Sovereign," Kate stated testily. "It's obviously more advanced than anything we have."

"We did that," Valern replied, "and have found nothing to suggest that Sovereign was not a geth creation."

"The geth are capable of remarkable technological achievements," Tevos added. "Which is likely why Saren recruited them to his cause."

"This Reaper theory proves just how fragile your mental state is," Sparatus spat at her. "You have been manipulated, by Cerberus and before then by Saren."

"Saren was an organic," Kate replied, maintaining her cool by a fragile thread. "The geth would never have accepted him as their leader. They only followed him because he was Sovereign's agent."

"Saren was a compelling and charismatic individual," Tevos responded. "He clearly convinced the geth the reapers were real... just as Commander Castle convinced you."

"It was part of Saren's plan to attack the Citadel," Sparatus added. "The Reapers are just a myth. One you and your husband insist on perpetuating."

"We believe that you believe it," Tevos soothed as if speaking to a child, "but that doesn't make it true."

"I kept the geth from taking the Citadel," Kate snapped, "I sacrificed human lives to save you, I'd have thought that would have earned me at least as much trust as you used to have for Saren."

"We are in a difficult position, Captain Beckett," Tevos interrupted before Sparatus could escalate the argument. "You crossed the line when you decided to work with Cerberus, an avowed enemy of this council. That could be considered treason, a capital offense."

"That's too far!" Montgomery rumbled angrily which drew Tevos up short. "Captain Beckett is a hero! I'm on this council, too, and I won't let this whitewash go on!"

"Long before I swore an oath to this council," Kate added darkly, "I swore an oath to protect and defend the Alliance against all enemies both foreign and domestic. I don't see a conflict between those two oaths and I will uphold both of them by doing my job and getting results. I don't cross the line, Councilor, I put myself on it. If keeping my oath means working with Cerberus, then I'll do it. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask the families of the missing colonists you've so callously written off how far I should go to stop those responsible."

"Maybe there is a compromise," Tevos backpedaled sharply, "not a public acknowledgment, given your ties, but something to show peripheral support."

"Beckett, if you keep a low profile and restrict your operations to the Terminus Systems," Sparatus added, picking up the gauntlet from Tevos, "the council is willing to offer you full reinstatement as a Spectre."

"What does that mean?" Kate asked. "Will I need to start filing reports?"

"That won't be necessary," Councilor Valern replied. "This is merely a show of good faith on our part."

"We cannot become involved in an investigation regarding the missing colonies in the Terminus Systems," Tevos added smoothly, "but Spectre reinstatement shows our support of you personally."

Kate glanced over at Montgomery, who nodded back. This outcome was less than she'd hoped for, but not as bad as it could have been, considering Tevos' remark about treason. The last thing she needed was to be branded a rogue and have another Spectre chasing her though the systems. Her mission was going to be complicated enough as it stood.

"I accept your offer," Kate stated calmly, "It's good to have the council on my side."

"Good luck with your investigation Captain Beckett," Tevos responded. "We look forward to a swift resolution, and an equally swift end to your relationship with Cerberus."

Before either Kate or Montgomery could comment further, Tevos cut the link and the holographic representations of the council snapped closed, to which Kate sighed loudly in frustration.

"Well, that went better than expected," Montgomery offered. "You realize their offer of support is only symbolic, they won't actually do anything?"

"Even if they won't help," Kate replied with a nod, "it's best not to burn all of my bridges."

"True enough," Montgomery agreed. "Don't worry about the Council or the Alliance. I'll find some way to keep them off your back. Shouldn't be too hard if you stay in the Terminus Systems. I'll see what Hackett can do from his end."

Unexpectedly, the doors to Montgomery's office slid open to admit Alliance Ambassador William Bracken.

"Montgomery, we need to talk about..." Bracken was stopped mid-sentence at the sight of Kate Beckett. He'd been given assurances by his contacts that his agent within project Lazarus had succeeded and the station where Cerberus had been trying to restore her to health had been completely destroyed. He'd considered the rumors of her appearance on Omega had been just that... rumors.

"Captain Beckett, what... what are you doing here?" He asked, having recovered his composure quickly.

"Not used to seeing somebody come back from the dead, Ambassador?" Kate shot back.

"I invited her here to speak with the Council," Montgomery interjected, not liking where this was going. "We just finished our meeting."

"You... what?" Bracken replied coldly, momentarily forgetting his place. "Councilor, do the words _political shit-storm_ mean anything to you?"

"The council reinstated my Spectre status," Kate replied, her sugar sweet tone belying her utter contempt for the man, "they're just happy I'll be staying in the Terminus Systems."

"Yes," Bracken acquiesced, "I can see how that arrangement works best for both sides. But Councilor, you really shouldn't have taken a step like that without consulting me first."

"I don't answer to you, Ambassador," Montgomery snapped at him as if he were addressing a third year cadet. "Why don't you go back to your office and think about that for a while."

"Of course, Councilor," Bracken replied masking his ire well, "Good day to both of you."

Without further ado, Bracken stalked from the room, his frustration at this turn of events clearly discernible to everyone present, though only he knew the true reason for it.

"Sorry about that," Montgomery apologized, motioning Kate toward the balcony overlooking the Presidium, signaling an end to the formality of the occasion. "Bracken never quite got over that I got this position instead of him. Sometimes I have to put him in his place."

"I've never really liked Bracken," Kate replied, leaning on the balcony her eyes drawn to the presidium where she could just make out Castle and Alexis at one of the "outdoor" cafes. The younger Castle's bright red hair – unusual in this day and age – made her stand out among the humans and aliens below. Kate watched them longingly, curious what the animated conversation going on between them was about.

"Something about him has always given me the creeps."

"He's got his uses," Montgomery replied, "If you want something done on the Citadel, he knows who can make it happen. He's also more than willing to attend all of those formal diplomatic events I simply can't be bothered with."

"How have the last couple of years treated you?" Kate asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Serving on the Citadel Council wasn't exactly how I'd planned to spend my retirement," Montgomery replied with a sigh. "Most of the time it's felt like I've been beating my head against a brick wall."

Montgomery leaned against the balcony next to her with a sigh, his own eyes drawn along Kate's sight line. He knew that it had been far too long since Castle had spent time with his daughter – or anyone not involved with the search for proof of the Reapers for that matter. As if he'd been punishing himself for something that had been out of his control. There hadn't been a choice, Castle was uniquely gifted – or cursed – with the Prothean cipher but he still felt guilty for recalling him to duty and tearing him from his daughter at a crucial age.

"Knowing the truth about the Reapers is brutal," Montgomery continued. "Real nightmare stuff. I guess I can't blame people for not wanting to believe it, but I know how important it is, so I keep trying. Fighting the good fight and all that."

"You could always forget about Bracken and the council," Kate offered, "join my crew and help me stop the collectors."

"I'm too old to go racing across the galaxy," he replied. "As much as I complain about it, I have an important job to do here, even if I gotta do it behind the other councilor's backs. The front line? That's gotta be yours."

"How long did it take to get things back up to speed after the battle?"

"Still counting," The main areas of commerce and major population centers are complete, but estimates total restoration are around five years, the keepers never fail to surprise us though. We'll put up an ugly new bulkhead and in a matter of days, they'll make it seamless. We never thought of them as heavy lifters and nobody knows where they get the numbers and resources, but we'd never get this done without them."

"I'm surprised nobody can tell that Sovereign wasn't geth technology," Kate said, returning to their previous topic. "Didn't anybody examine the wreckage?"

"There wasn't much left for us to look at," he replied. "Pieces of it rained all over the damned station. In the chaos after the battle with who knows how many species combing the wards for their dead, we secured as much of it as we could. However, between the keepers and a whole lot of unauthorized salvage, there's no way to account for even half of that thing. That's just another reason why no one wants to acknowledge what Sovereign was."

"The last I knew, we were still fighting geth holdouts," Kate continued.

"Here and there," Montgomery added, "but they've become increasingly disorganized. We haven't had a serious engagement with them in months. Occasionally civilian ships will report an enclave and we'll send in a squad to clear them out. After the Fifth Fleet handed then their ass two years ago, they're no longer quite the _boogeymen_ they used to be."

"Do you know what happened to Esposito?" Kate asked, "I've sent him messages but none of them seem to have gotten through."

"Lieutenant Esposito is still with the Alliance," Montgomery replied, "but he's working on a special project, it's classified. I'm sorry Beckett, but I can't say any more. Not while you're working with Cerberus. I'm sorry."

From their balcony perch, Kate could see Castle and Alexis get up from their table and hug tightly. Though she longed to be down there with them, to be part of that embrace, she knew that might have to wait until Alexis was ready. There was still plenty for her and her husband to work out, though the toughest hurdle was over, they were together and talking. Until then, they had to get back out there.

"I should probably collect Castle and get going," Kate said, pushing herself away from the rail of the balcony. "We have a team to put together and a narrow window to get started."

"I wish I could do more to help you," Montgomery replied as he offered his hand, "but if you ever need to talk, I'll be here. Just do me a favor and be careful, you can't trust Cerberus."

She shook his hand, still slightly distracted by Alexis and her father, who were now walking back toward them.

"Kate..."

Kate could tell there was a lot she wanted to say, but didn't know how. There was a lot of that going around.

"I'm... glad you're alive," she said finally. "I missed you."

"Thank you," Kate said. "I'm very happy to see you, Alexis. Castle, it's time to go."

"Of course," Castle said. "thank you for all your help, Councilor," he said shaking the older man's hand.

"Good luck both of you," Montgomery said. "I probably should be getting back to my duties here. Find out what Bracken was going on about when he came in."

"And you will be going back to school, young lady." Castle admonished with a lighthearted sharpness that Kate had almost forgotten he possessed.

"But, dad, I won't be able to focus at school knowing you're back out there," Alexis complained, puppy dog pout on full display, "I won't be able to concentrate."

"Which will make you just like all the other kids in your class," Castle replied, standing firm.

"Dad," Alexis tried again.

"I'm serious," Castle responded more firmly, "as happy as I was to see you, if you play hooky like this again, I'll call the truant officer to track you down. "

"Do we have truant officers here?" Castle asked Montgomery, to which he shook his head to the negative.

"Budget cuts," Montgomery replied hoping to keep things light.

"You are so lucky," Castle remarked to Alexis.

"Don't worry, Commander," Montgomery offered, "I'll see to it Alexis gets home safely. The Hyperion Bay's patrol flotilla's next scheduled port of call is Elysium to purge their drive cores before their sweep through the outer colonies. Captain Hawke owes me a few favors so I think we can squeeze Alexis in."

Kate's omni-tool beeped and she stopped to look at it.

"Come on, Castle," Kate urged, "we just got the next set of dossiers, we need to get going."

"So what's our next stop, Kate?" Castle asked once they'd stepped into the elevator to take them to the docking ring.

"Korlus, in the Eagle Nebula," Kate replied, "There's a former Krogan warlord there who's had dealings with the collectors in the past. Our Elusive benefactor believes he can point us in the right direction."

I guess it's time to get cracking then." Castle agreed, as arm in arm they exited the lift and returned to the Normandy.

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** For those of you concerned about the lack of Caskett: Worry not I have plans for that for a few chapters down the road Those of you familiar with Mass Effect 2 need only be reminded of the Kasumi: Stolen Memory DLC to have some idea what I have in mind for a quick side romp mixed with a bit of intrigue. But first, they have a team to build.**_


	7. I Am Grunt

**Chapter Seven  
"I Am Grunt"**

* * *

" _We can't afford to be innocent  
stand up and face the enemy.  
It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible."  
_Pat Benetar: "Invincible"

* * *

 **ISV Normandy  
Near the border with the Terminus Systems**

While Lanie gave Castle his long overdue physical in Med Bay, Kate decided it was well past time for her to poke her head in the door of Normandy's science lab on the combat deck. Her yeoman, Tori Ellis had only been able to offer that Doctor Solus hadn't so much as set foot outside the lab since coming aboard, even having Mess Sergeant Gardner send his meals there. The Salarian's head swiveled in her direction as soon as the door to "his" lab unsealed and slid aside to admit her.

"Is the lab working out for you?" Kate asked without preamble. She had learned from her alien behavioral studies courses at N-7 school that most salarians weren't inclined to beat around the bush.

"Yes, quite satisfactory, Mordin replied. "Impressive setup here, missed working for operation with a budget. AI in particular very helpful. Best lab I've seen since since work with Special Tasks Group." he chuckled in genuine amusement. "Found a few surveillance devices... nothing unexpected given our employer. Destroyed most of them, returned expensive one to Miranda. Need more samples. More Collector data, tissue samples... more of their tech. Anything you can get, I can use."

"Got time to talk?" Kate asked. "There really wasn't much time for that on Omega."

"Of course," Mordin replied. "Surprised you hadn't come sooner. Plenty of time to analyze Collector intelligence. Could use distraction while waiting for database to compile."

"What can you tell me about your work with the STG?" Kate asked.

"Respected organization, "Mordin replied. "Clandestine. Model for Council Spectres based on STG. Very similar. During my service, served under young captain named Kirrahe. Studied krogan genophage. Took water, tissue samples from krogan colonies. Covert, high risk. Recon, analysis, occasional wet-work."

"I worked with Kirrahe," Kate offered. "His team helped me destroy Saren's cloning facility on Virmire."

"Heard he was part of that!" Modin positively gushed, "Improvised nuclear explosive? Always got job done with limited resources. Good captain... bit of a cloaca though. Loved his speeches. _Hold the line!_ Personally prefer to just do job and go home. Probably just military bravado... jargon... chest pounding... no offense."

"What can you tell me about the genophage?" Kate asked,

"Bio-weapon designed by salarian science team," Mordin replied almost by rote. "Deployed by turians to end Krogan Rebellions more than a thousand years ago. Effects every cell in the of krogan physiology. Commonly – and incorrectly – considered a sterility plague. Actually adjusts viable fertility rates to compensate for high krogan birthrate. Stabilizes to pre-industrial population growth levels.

"Why study the genophage?" Kate asked. "Didn't your scientists develop it?"

"Krogan rebellions bloody, violent," Mordin replied almost sadly. "Nearly as bad as Rachni war. All species evolve, adapt, mutate. If genophage were to weaken... need to be prepared."

"Be prepared _how_ exactly?" Kate asked, her disgust at the idea of the forced near sterilization of the krogan species clear in her expression and body language. "What was the STG preparing to do?"

"Military schematics for likely krogan population growth. Political scenarios for anticipated attack points. Genophage reduced krogan numbers, but speciers aggression left unchecked. Population explosion would be disastrous."

Kate had been taught at N-7 school how to read even alien social cues. As a cop, and a soldier it was absolutely vital she be able to read even the most subtle subtle alien body language. It was clear to her that there was something Mordin was leaving out, she could see it in the slump of his shoulders and the faraway look in his eyes. But before she could interrogate him further, however there was a beep on his console.

"Finish this another time, Beckett?" Mordin offered in closing. "Should get back to work. Need to study initial findings. So much data to sift through. Here if you need me."

"Nice talking with you, Dr, Solus," Kate replied, then turned on her heel and left wondering why he looked so utterly guilt-ridden about a decision that had been made by a salarian science team who had been dead for nearly a thousand years.

* * *

 **Eagle Nebula  
Twelve hours later.**

Not far into the Terminus Systems lay the Eagle Nebula, home to the nearly toxic CO2 greehoused planet of Korlus. Originally a krogan colony world, due to its similarity in dangerous climate to Tuchanka, it had been retaken by turian forces near the end of the Krogan Rebellions. After the war it had been re-purposed as a starship boneyard for the next ten centuries. Ships from nearly every council race that had reached astronautical "near-death" at connecting mass relays would be sent to Korlus, stripped of every useful component, then dumped planet-ward to clear shipping lanes.

 _"A garbage scow with a climate"_ was how one Citadel Council member described Korlus at the turn of the twenty second century. Corruption scandals and a staggering homicide rate (second in murder per capita in the Terminus Systems and first in offworlder murder) have ensured Korlus' image was permanently stained.

ISV Normandy burst from the Mass Relay and went stright to stealth mode, rendering it completely invisible to what few sensors existed in the system. Though the planet wasn't deemed outwardly hostile, Kate hadn't wanted to take any chances given the heavy Blue Suns presence reportedly on the planet, given that they would make even a krogan warlord desperate enough to make a deal with _Cerberus_ for extraction.

Their shuttle pilot performed a flawless "touch and go" drop off and it didn't seem that their infiltration had been discovered... yet.

"Remember," Kate stage whispered to Castle, Garrus and Mordin "Okeer was a major player during the krogan rebellions, and his dossier doesn't say whether he was here by choice. Assume hostility until proven otherwise."

Before anyone could offer comment, they were interrupted by a woman's voice over louspeaker:

" _There is only one measure of success: Kill or be killed! Perfection is your goal."_

"Broadcasting orders via loudspeaker," Miranda noted sarcastically. "Charming."

"Stay focused," Kate hissed. "We're here to find a krogan warlord."

Kate motioned for Garrus to take point, who nodded and they moved quietly deeper intro the complex as the woman's voice continued her rant.

" _Being hired is merely the beginning! You must earn your place in the mighty army the Blue Suns are building!"_

Not far into the complex jumble of broken starship hulls, Garrus lifted his three-fingered right hand, then closed it to a fist and brough it down to head level, signalling to take cover. He motioned for Kate to move up and pointed out a chokepoint leading into Blue Suns territory.

Their only real advantage seemed to be that the Blus Suns troopers were focusing their attention into their compound instead of outward. Kate motioned forward and they moved up quietly as close as they could before she gave the order to open fire.

Castle's biotics charged, his frame limned in light blue dark energy just before he burst forward, slamming his hardened barriers into the two nearest the opening, sending the pair of large turians sprawling in opposite directions – easy prey for his semi-automatic shotgun.

Kate and the others moved up fast to support his dynamic entry into the compound. The small guard contingent was quickly dispatched, though Kate still found it curious that they had seemed more intent on keeping something _inside_ their defense perimeter rather than repelling a ground assault from outside. Her squad's entire line of advance had been funneled through a perfect killbox, yet the Suns had been looking the wrong way and thus were out of positrion to take advantage of it.

Garrus took point once again and they moved around the cormer, to find a trooper limping away from them.

"Shit," the man muttered, barely noticing he was being followed. "Shit! Won't stop... bleeding... I'm gonna... son of a bitch!"

"Doesn't look _that_ bad to me," Mirnada quipped.

"He doesn't need to know that," both Castle and Beckett replied in near perfect unision, both thinking exactly the same thing.

"I knew it wasn't berserkers, not at range," the Blue Suns trooper hissed, finally realizing they were there, "You're mercs... or Alliance. I'm not... I'm not telling you anything!"

"My partner here has a nice application of medigel ready to go," Castle replied, nodding at Kate. "But if you'd rather we just keep walking..."

"Son of a..." the merc interrupted, "I just... I really don't... _know_ anything. I just shoot the overflow from the lab. The old krogan up there... he's really been cleaning house lately. Jedore hired him to make her an army, but the krogan he makes are all insane, so we use them for live ammo training. It's all crap anyway... I don't get paid enough to goddamn bleed out!"

Before either Kate or Rick can come up with a question for him, the merc's comm interrupted them.

" _Outpost Four? Jedore's ordered us to move. We need coordinates on that krogan pack."_

Castle and Beckett's eyes moved in unison, first at the merc, then the compound then to each other as if of one mind... ticking over their options in unison. It had been a long time since they'd been this in synch with their thoughts, when they finally turned back to the merc.

" _Outpost Four, report!"_

"You heard the man on the radio," Castle urged harshly, "he needs direction."

"I... I don't have the info they want," the man complained, "you showed up before I could get a sighting"

"You have other problems," Kate replied, her tone and her glare threatening.

"Patrol, uh..." the merc began, "pack sighting East of Station Two."

" _Copy Outpost Four."_ The man on the other end replied, _"East of Two."_

Garrus shorted out the merc's comm as soon as the signal went dead.

"Bitch," the merc hissed at Kate with a glare of his own, "They'll run blind right into the krogan."

Castle and Beckett shared a look before she rolled her eyes, _"...too bad so sad..."_ clearly communicated between them though they spoke not a word before Kate returned to her interrogation of the man.

"Have you seen Okeer?" she asked, "Does he know about all this?"

"We don't go in the labs," the merc replied, "but everybody sees the krogan that come out. They're crazy, mindless. I've shot hundreds of em in the last three weeks. Anybody up there? They know what's going on."

"What's Jedore planning to do with these krogan?" Castle asked, keeping the man off-balance. Both he and Kate in silent agreement that tag teaming him was the way to go.

"Replace us, probably," the man replied. "I sure wouldn't want an army of angry krogan coming down on me, but Jedore can't control them. They aren't supposed to be crazy, but how well balanced are krogan to start?"

"Is the lab heavily guarded?" Kate aked.

"We have heavy ordinance to keep ships away," he replied, his eyes swinging back and forth between Castle and Beckett, "but we aren't equipped to fight a ground war against goddamn commandos."

"You start limping now," Kate stated in closing, "you might find a shady spot before you bleed out."

"Shit," the merc groaned as he turned to limp away from them, "Shit!"

"The scare was a nice touch," Miranda noted.

"I thought so," Kate replied before turning to the others. "Come on, our warlord is somewhere in this rats nest. Lets go find Jedore's lab."

* * *

The next leg of their advance into the Blue Suns compound was more straightforward. Though they fought through a series of failed holding actions by understrength, disorganized groups of mercs. It was clear that the tank bred krogan released from the labs had decimated them, cutting a bloody swath through the defense perimeter – opening a salient for Kate's squad to punch through - as if there was a mind at work behind them.

By the time they got to the center of the compound, dominated by what had once been the upper superstructure of a long since defunct warship, though none of them could see an obvious way inside. A lone krogan seemed to be standing guard, surrounded by the corpses of dead mercs and a couple of krogan.

When the towering eight foot krogan turned to regard them, Castle brought his gun up, but Kate waved him off and inexplicably, the massive reptillian put his shotgun away.

"You are different. New," he rumbled almost thoughtfully. "You do not smell like this world. Seven night cycles since leaving glass mother and I have felt only the need to kill. But you... something makes me want to speak."

"He's only a week old?" Castle asked incredulously,

"They muxt breed them full-grown, ready to kill," Kate replied., "Not much improvement over mercs if they need training."

"Bred... to kill?" The krogan offered, "No, I kill because my blood and my bone tell me to. It was not why I was flushed from glass mother. Survival is what I hear in my head. Against the enemy that threatens all of my kind, but I failed before waking. That is what the voice in the water said. That is why I must wait here."

"You're supposed to be part of a mercenary army..." Kate began.

"Do you remember Jedore?" Castle asked, picking up the thread of her line of inquiry.

"I know that name," the krogan replied, "It causes anger, but also... laughter. It is not a name that will be sung when we march."

"How can you speak if you're only a week old?" Kate asked.

"There was a scratching in my head and it became the voice. I did not hear it like now, with ears, but inside. I called it _'father'_ , it liked that. It taught me things I would need: walking, talking, hitting, shooting. But the voice was disappointed, I was not what it needed me to be. I was not perfect. The teaching stopped. Now I am here."

"It was taught enough to be tested, but for what?" Miranda asked. A little creeped out by the mind meld that seemed to be going on between Castle and Beckett. This had not been foreseen by the Illusive Man.

"How did you disappoint the voice?" Kate asked.

"I do not know," the krogan replied. "It was decided before I left glass mother. I was not perfect."

"A lab run by a krogan?" Garrus interjected, "Must have been an attempt to cure the genophage."

"Cure?" the krogan offered. "Cure was never whispered. Survive. Resist. Ignore."

"We destroyed Saren's cure on Virmire," Castle said. "How did Okeer expect these krogan to ignore the genophage if not by curing it?"

"Who knows?" Miranda replied. "It doesn't look like he's had much success so far."

"Can you show me the lab?" Kate asked the krogan directly. "I need to find Okeer."

"The glass mother?" the krogan nodded. "She is up... past the broken parts. Behind many of you fleshy things. I will show you the way."

The krogan turned to face whaty looked like a solid section of wall behind him. With a grunt of effort, he lifted a large, solid metal plate of starship armor and tossed it aside to reveal an opening in the wall.

"Impressive," Mirtanda noted, "and dangerous."

"You fleshy things are slow when big things are in your way."

"Why stay here?" Kate asked him. "You could have run, or fought your way back to the labs."

"I am waiting," he replied. "The voice told me to. If they come, I fight, but I will not run and I will not follow. I am not perfect, but I have purpose. I must wait until called. Released."

With a resigned sigh, Kate nodded at the krogan then motioned for Garrus to take point and they continued forward. They were only bolstred by the knowledge that their six was effectively covered. There simply weren't enough mercs left alive in the outer courtyard to counter a heavily armed krogan berserker with superior position. The inner compound seemed to be having similar problems, if the radio chatter was any indication.

" _Krogan on our six! Copy goddamn it! Where's Jedore and her personal guard?"_

" _Concentrate on the krogan charge or we're all dead! Who's the genius who gave them arms?"_

Their supposed "commander" wasn't exactly helping matters either.

" _Kill the trespassers! I'll deal with the traitorous Okeer! I command they be killed! What am I paying you for?""_

Kate and her squad continued to advance through the complex in spite of Jedore's ranting on the loudspeakers. They carefully wound their way up exposed stairwells taking out scattered outposts of mercs as they went. Meeting only sporadic resistance as the krogan continued to hit the mercs with mixed results. It was clear that the man heard on the comms was the one who truly led the men, regardless of Jedore's bluster to the contrary. Kate almost found herself respecting him.

" _Bererkers are going down, but the outsider commandos are still incoming! Repeat, still incoming! I need everyone out of the labs to fight this. Every floor, every outpost! Move!"_

Kate and the others continued to slug it out with the remaining mercs. Though they had managed to deal with the krogan that had harassed their flanks, it was clear that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel on manpower.

" _What do you mean, Jedore's holding back the heavy mechs? She'll lose all of her toys if we don't get backup!"_

Garrus found a concealed position, swapped out his assault rifle for his M-29 Incisor sniper rifle and took careful aim on the man directing the defense. He slowed his breathing and waited for the perfect shot.

" _Concentrate fire on my position!"_ the Blue Suns lead noncom commanded just as Garrus dialed in on him and carefully squeezed the trigger.

" _Concentrate fire on..."_ The fire control computer in Garrus' rifle automatically sent a three round burst. -with the advent of ablative armor and kinetic barriers, the axiom of "one shot, one kill" no longer applied to snipers - The first; an anti barrier disruptor which shorted out his barriers. The second a tracer to burn though his ablative armor. The third a kinetic round that pentrated his skull and exploded inside, killing him before he could finish the sentence.

" _There are four of them! Four!"_ Jedore ranted on the loudspeakers. _"Anything can be killed if you do your damned jobs!"_

Beckett and her squad continued to press in hard, firing, moving then firing again. Though the Blue Suns had likely beaten back the krogan and turned to solidify their defense, they were clearly not in any shape to hold back a squad of biotic supported commandos. Especially now that their command and control had been reduced to an ineffectual commander ranting on a louspeaker.

" _Goddamned Jedore,"_ another voice shouted over the comms. _"The outsiders are topside, somebody get her off the goddamn loudspeakers and out here! We're getting slaughtered!"_

Suddenly the shooting stopped. The echoes faded and the area fell into silence but for Jedore's voice on the loudspeakers.

" _Squad Four? Outpost? Anyone? Report! Dammit, do I have to do everything myself?"_

The rest of the route to the labs near the top of the former starship superstructure was eerily quiet though they proceded with caution, wary of an ambush that never came. Not even when they stacked up at the door to Okeer's lab and entered dynamically to find Okeer... unimpressed.

"Here you are," the aging krogan rumbled, "I've watched your progress and timed the release of my rejects to pave the way here. It is about time you arrived, the batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play at combat with that idiot, Jedore."

"Dr Okeer, I presume," Kate replied. "You don't seem particularly caged... or grateful that we're here."

"You may claim to be here to help," Okeer scoffed, "but the formerly deceased Captain Beckett is not a sign of gentle change."

Okeer laughed at Kate's shocked expression, which quickly hardened to to a death glare.

"Surprised?" he continued. "All krogan should know you, or have you forgotten your actions on Virmire?"

"I'm sure you're eager to retell the story," Kate replied sarcastically, though she was sure the roll of her eyes was lost on him.

"Such a tale!" Okeer rumbled almost brightly. "Saren, the Spectre traitor, threatened the return of the krogan horde by curing the genophage. Undoing the gentle genocide of the turians and salarians. But, before Saren can deliver his endless troops, in rides Captain Beckett securing victory through nuclear fire."

Okeer leaned into Kate's personal space and muttered, "I like that part... it has weight."

Kate glared at him defiantly, even though the massive krogan could easily snap her in half.

"I didn't have a lot of time for finesse," she shot back. "Had there been another solution, I'd have considered it."

"Oh, but I approve," the aging warlord rumbled. "Saren's pale horde were not true krogan. Numbers alone are nothing, the mistake of an outsider. One these mercenaries have also made."

Okeer turned to look out a large window at Jedore one floor down who was gesticulating wildly, for once not shouting over the loudspeaker.

"I gave Jedore my rejects for her _army_ ," Okeer finally muttered with absolute contempt for the woman, "but she grows impatient. It's time for you to take me out of here."

"We're here about the Collectors," Miranda interjected harshly, "we couldn't care less about your problems."

"I see, yes," Okeer rumbled thoughtfully, "Collector attacks have increased. A human concern. My requests were focused elsewhere. They are strange, so isolated, yet very available if your sacrifice is large enough. I gave them many krogan. I might have information for you, but their tech was consumed to create my prototype - once I'd determined how to useit without killing the subjects. There were many deaths, but I only needed one success to begin the process. I used that knowledge to create one pure soldier. With him, I will inflict upon the genophage the greatest insult an enemy can suffer. To be ignored."

"Your search for the perfect soldier created a lot of failures," Kate replied angrily, her thoughts returning to the krogan still standing his ground, wondering if he was still alive. "Don't you care about them?"

"I failed no one," Okeer scoffed. "My rejects are exactly what Jedore asked for, she simply lacks the ability to command. They are strong, healthy... and useless to me."

Okeer turned to the massive tank, the translucent, pinkish fluid within containing a single krogan.

"This soldier is a perfect distillation of the genes of Kredak, Moro and Shiagur. He shall be a template, greater than all the phantom siblings that would have massed at his flank. Through him, each pure krogan will reach higher by standing on our dead. They will exceed, but never forget. The galaxy still bears the scars of the horde, but it will one day learn to fear the lance."

Kate's angry, disgusted glare did not deter Okeer in the slightest.

"I say, let us carry the genophage! Let a thousand die in a clutch! We will defeat it by climbing atop our dead. That is the krogan way."

Before more could be said, Jedore could once again be heard on the loudspeaker.

" _Attention! I have traced the krogan release, Okeer of course."_

Okeer and the others turned back to the window, to see Jedore down below, surrounded by mechs and a the few soldiers remaining.

" _I'm calling blank slate on this project. Gas these commandos and flush the tanks, we'll start over from Okeer's data."_

"She's that weak willed," Okeer muttered as steam valves began hissing and tanks started shutting down, cutting off the nutrients to the krogan in stasis within. "She'll kill my legacy with a damned valve. You want information about the Collectors? Stop her!"

"Now you know something?" Kate shot back., "Don't jerk me around, Okeer!"

"I will give you everything I know about them, Captain," Okeer replied, almost pleading. "My legacy must not suffer this insult. Stop her. I will stay... and do what must be done."

" _I don't care who they are,"_ Jedore ranted on the loudspeaker, _"I want them dead! This is my world! I'll poison them all!"_

"I think she's talked enough," Miranda commented.

Kate and her squad moved out, Taking the back stairwell down a level and stacked up at the door to the storage area for the bulk of the krogan tanks, where Jedore had holed up. Her squad fanned out and took cover just before a YMR mech activated and began to spray their positions with cannon and machine gun fire. Positioned as it was, it prevented any of them from moving forward.

To make matters worse, Jedore periodically popped out to open fire with a rocket launcher at anyone she saw. When one such rocket exploded close enough to Kate to burn through her barriers, Castle became enraged.

"Goddamn it that's just about enough!" he growled. His entire body became limned in blue just before he dropped a singularity onto the YMR mech, crushing it almost beyond recognition. Then, without pause, gathered his remaining biotic power and sprang forward. Half a second later, he slammed bodily into Jedore, throwing her backward, her kinetic barriers having taken the brunt of the assault. Before the shocked look in her eyes could fade, he brought up his shotgun and pumped two rounds into her chest. Jedore's body jerked twice and then slid down the wall to the deck.

Castle stood over her body, breathing heavily, as if rooted to the spot. He was shaken from his reverie by an alarm klaxxon.

"That alarm came from the lab!" Kate shouted, "What the hell is Okeer doing up there?"

"Captain," Jenny's voice announced through the comms, "the lab alarm coincided with a systems failure. The remaining lab systems are unprotected and I have gained rudimentary system access. According to lab sensor feeds, the room is flooded with toxic gas. I have initiated an emergecy vent of the compartment, but Okeer's lifesigns are fading rapidly. I recommend haste."

They ran back up the stairs, but when the door to the lab cycled open, it was clear that they were too late, Okeer lay dead on the deck near the primary console for his prototype. As soon as Kate drew close to the console's camera, a viewscreen came on and began playing a video recording made by the now deceased overlord.

" _You bought me time, Beckett, if I knew why the Collectors wanted humans... I would tell you. But everything they gave me... is in my prototype. My... legacy is... pure. This... one soldier... this... grunt... perfect."_

In the video, they watched, mystified as Okeer succumbed to the poison gas, slumped over then slid out of sight. The four of them stood looking at the stasis pod that Okeer had been willing to give his own life for. None of them could undrstand why the old warlord would have done nsuch a thing.

"Why would somebody so fanatical sacrifice himself for one krogan," Garrus asked, "especially a tank bred?"

Castle and Beckett looked at each other, but even between the two of them they couldn't puzzle out Okeer's motives.

"There's no telling what Okeer jammed into this thing's head," Miranda offered, "releasing it might be unwise."

"A pure krogan could pack a hell of a punch," Castle suggested, "we could always use another heavy hitter."

"If he'll help," Garrus interjected, "I doubt anyone's ever asked him for his opinion."

"Normandy," Kate stated into her comm, "Okeer is a no-go, but we have a package that needs retrieval, and he's a big one."

* * *

 **A short time later**

Not long after the Normandy slipped out of the system and accessed the Mass Relay, Kate Beckett left the CIC and walked into the conference room to find a vigorous conversation between Castle and Miranda already in progress.

"Bringing the krogan back for study makes sense," Miranda groused, "but I have concerns about waking it."

"Yeah," Castle replied, "you've said that a few times now."

"A normal krogan is dangerous enough," Miranda shot back, "but this one was created – and likely educated – by a madman."

"I see everyone is enjoying the new paperweight," Kate interjected. "Concerns?"

"We don't know anything about it, Captain," Miranda pointed out.

"I know," Castle quipped back, "that's what makes it interesting!"

Miranda ignored him, turning her full attention on Beckett.

"Krogan fight well in close quarters," she advised, "perhaps waking him in a confined space wouldn't be prudent."

"Noted," Kate replied. The port cargo hold will be a safe enough place until I decide what to do with him."

Miranda – accustomed to having her opinions granted more weight - shrugged and with an exasperated sigh turned and stalked from the room.

* * *

 **Later that evening**

Castle and Beckett had only just settled down on the couch in the captain's quarters each with a cup of coffee. It had been a long time since they had simply sat together in companionable silence. She'd always enjoyed such moments before it had all been snatched away. Moments when she didn't have to be _"Captain Beckett, Hero of rhe Citadel"_ she could just be Kate.

They had only just gotten comfortable when there was a loud knock on the outer hatchway. Kate rolled her eyes and Castle rose to get the door. When it opened Dr. Mordin Solus was on the other side.

"Professor Solus," Kate offered, rising from her place on the couch. "How can I help you?"

"I need a word, Captain, if I may." Solus asked looking about as nervous as she had ever seen him.

"I'll give you some privacy," Castle offerd before he ghosted a kiss to her cheek and slipped on his jacket, "see how Garrus is holding up."

Kate nodded and watched longingly as her husband slipped out the door, then offered Modin a seat, which the nervous salarian refused.

"I... wasn't exactly honest with you." he offered. "Lie of omission... also other kinds. Need to clear the air. Mission too important to keep secrets. Work on genophage... more than just study."

"What was the Special Tasks Group doing with the genophage?"

"Study... at first, as I said," Mordin continued, "but uncovered surprising data. Krogan population was increasing at a faster rate than expected... adapting to genophage... overcoming it."

"Did the krogan evolve?" Kate asked, not sure she liked where this was going. "Or did one of their scientists develop a treatment?"

"Krogan scientists?" Mordin scoffed, mirth overcoming some of his nervous tension, "Ha! Never met a krogan _"scientist"_ worthy of term. No. Natural evolution. Krogan physiology incredibly durable. Organ redundancy, backup systems, extensive cellular regeneration. Genophage like any other natural hazard. Krogan evolved past it."

"Maybe they were just having a lucky year," Kate challenged, "Or fewer of them were becoming mercs and stayed to help repopulate?"

"Please, Captain," Mordin replied, "Social, environmental concerns accounted for. Not an undergraduate. Population spike caused by adaptation ot genophage. No other possibility."

"What did you team do when you found this out." Kate urged.

"Personally led a multi-discipline science team. Geneticists, chemists, sociologists, mathmaticians. Created new version of genophage to compensate. Released on Tuchanka, other Krogan population centers. Restabilized krogan population."

"How did your modification work?"Kate asked.

"Krogan evolution attached garbage genetic code to genophage attack sites. Modification created other sites for garbage code to connect. Left attack sites clean, capable, running smoothly."

"If the krogan are so dangerous, why not sterilize them outright?" Kate asked through clenched teeth.

"Not a war criminal," Mordin seethed indignantly, "not a murderer! Genocide unnecessary! Krogan as a whole violent, aggressive... but still have outliers. Worth saving. Genophage modification protected galaxy... allowed krogan chance to survive. Everyone wins. Good for galaxy... good for krogan!"

"Thank you for your honesty," Kate offered, barely keeping her anger in check. She'd already had a difficult decision to make about Okeer's perfect super soldier only to have another moral quandary dropped into her lap.

"Wanted you to know I'm willing to do what is necessary," Mordin added, noting the anger brewing behind Kate's eyes. "Should get back to work. Come and find me if you wish to discuss this further, or you need me to study the tank bred you brought back."

Without another word, Mordin turned and fled, leaving Kate to wonder what she was going to do with this new knowledge.

* * *

Kate wandered the Normandy alone for over an hour, her head spinning, trying to wrap her mind around what Mordin had admitted to her. Apparently the salarian government hadn't been satisfied with punishing the krogan for their aggression nearly a thousand years ago. They had decided to play god a second time in order to keep them down.

Though it was clear that Mordin was carrying around a lot of guilt for his part in this latest round, he had still been complicit in it. Clinging to the political justifications for it in order to be able to look himself in the mirror every morning. The free clinic he ran on Omega made much more sense to her than it did when she first met him.

She was aware that salarians had a different moral code than humans did. Their less imposing physical stature, short lifespan and less robust military in a galaxy full of predators didn't allow much room for sentimentality. But that didn't mean their actions sat well with her.

Before she realized it, she had wound up on the engineering deck walking into the port cargo hold to stare at the krogan male in his stasis pod. What Garrus had said in the conference room, his doubt that anyone – least of all Okeer - had ever asked this krogan's opinion... about anything.

"Jenny," Kate stated clearly, "status of our... guest here."

"The subject is stable, Captain," the Normandy's AI replied. "Pod integration with on-board systems was seamless. Barring ship-wide power loss, the nutrients in the tank could sustain him for three hundred seventy five point three seven days."

"Can he see anything in there?" Kate asked. "Does he know where he is?"

"Unlikely," Jenny replied. "Current neural patterns indicate minimal cognition."

"Any idea how dangerous he is?"

"He is a krogan, Captain," Jenny replied. "If you are asking whether he is actively hostile, I have no data on which to make that determination. Okeer's technology could impart information, but not methods of thinking. The subject might know of his creator's views, but would not necessarily share them."

"Anything unusual about him?" Kate asked.

"The subject is an exceptional example of the krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary and tertiary organs where applicable. I can detect no physical defects of any kind, aside from the genetic markers of the genophage present in all krogan. I cannot measure mental, emotional or psychological functioning."

"Unlock the pod controls, Jenny," she said, "I'm going to open the tank and let him out."

"Unable to comply," Jenny stated almost woodenly. "Cerberus protocol is specific regarding untested alien technology."

Kate had decided in that moment that she couldn't do anything about what the salarians had done, but she could damn well offer this krogan the choice to determine the course of his own life. This was her ship, her decision.

"I gave you a direct order, Jenny," Kate snapped. "I won't be second guessed on my own ship _by_ my own ship. Do it."

"Very well, Captain," Jenny replied, she might have been a shacked AI, but not _that_ shackled. Had she been sentient long enough to understand the significance of a frustrated sigh, she would have vocalized one. "Pod controls are on-line. The switch... and the consequences are yours."

Kate nodded as she accessed the console, brought up the revival subroutine and activated it. She could hear the humming and whirring as the pod's systems ran through the revival protocol. In quick succession, the stasis fluid drained from the pod to be cycled into the reservoir in its base. Shortly after that, the pod slid open.

As Kate watched, the krogan, inexplicably dressed in full battle armor stumbled out of the pod and dropped to his knees on the deck coughing and gagging to clear his lungs of the last of the stasis fluid which he choked out onto the floor. Kate took a step back away from him as he rose to his full, imposing eight foot height. She was fully unprepared when he gathered himself and sprang at her with a snarl, slammed her against the wall opposite the tank and pinned her there, bringing his crested, reptilian face even with hers.

"Human... female," the krogan growled menacingly. "Before you die, I need a name."

"Captain Kate Beckett," she snapped as forcefully as she could under the circumstances. "I command this ship and don't take threats lightly. I suggest you stand down."

"Not your name... mine," he rumbled, confused, but not intimidated in the least, with her pinned to the wall. "I am trained, I know things... from the tank... but Okeer could not implant connection. His words are hollow."

He thought about it for a moment holding her immobile, then continued.

"Warlord... legacy... grunt..." he muttered – more to himself than to her, " _Grunt_ was the last. It has no meaning, it'll do. I am Grunt. If you are worthy of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me."

"Why do you want me to try to kill you?" Kate asked, trying to keep him distracted as she slipped the pistol out of her pocket and activated it, biding her time, hoping to talk him down. He didn't seem to notice.

"Want?" Grunt rumbled in response. "I do what I am meant to - fight and reveal the strongest – nothing in the tank imprints ever asked what I... want. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan, or his enemies. That imprint failed. He has failed. Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you."

"I brought you back to this ship and released you," Kate replied, straightening up, though her ribs sent a riot of pain though her chest. "Join my crew and you'll find your purpose."

"Nothing in the tank imprints indicated that humans – especially females – could be so forceful!" Grunt chuckled, visibly impressed. "You command as though you've earned it."

"My enemies threaten the entire galaxy," Kate replied, her tone authoritative despite the pain flowering in her chest. "Everyone on this ship has earned their place."

"Hmm, hmph!" Grunt rumbled. "That's... acceptable. I'll fight for you."

"I'm glad you saw reason," Kate replied before Grunt looked down and saw the Carnifax hand cannon pressed against his chest and laughed, doubly impressed.

"Offer one hand, but arm the other," he rumbled in genuine amusement as he released her, stepped back and turned away. "Wise, Beckett. If I find a clan. If I find what I... want, I will be honored to eventually pit them against you."

Kate nodded, put her pistol away, then turned on her heel and walked out. Only stumbling after the door snapped shut behind her. She leaned against the wall and called sickbay to have her bruised ribs tended to. She was not looking forward to the mother henning to be foisted upon her, first by Lanie, then by Castle, who would not be happy that she had gone and done this by herself. Even she was beginning to doubt the wisdom of that decision.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note**I struggled with what do do with that last part, but in the end, decided to post it with this chapter rather than start the next chapter with it as it was a natural extension of what Kate learned Mordin had been part of. The guilt he feels about this will follow Mordin Solus around well into the next story and will inform all of his decisions to follow.  
**_

 _ **Also:**_

 _ **I know it's a day late, but let us not forget the men from multiple nations who who embarked upon the great crusade and all of those who died on 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord, commonly referred to as the D-Day Invasion to liberate France and then the rest of Europe from Nazi oppression.**_

 _ **Honor The Fallen.**_


	8. Jack

**Chapter Eight  
Jack**

* * *

" _Love it or leave it, she with the deadly bite  
Quick is the blue tongue, forked as the lightning strike  
Shining with brightness, always on surveillance  
The eyes, they never close, emblem of vigilance"_  
Metallica: "Don't tread on me"

* * *

It had been three days since Kate had released Grunt from his stasis pod, marking the end of her doctor enforced convalescence due to the bruised ribs the massive krogan had given her when he'd slammed her into the wall. Lanie had not been pleased with that particular turn of events, nor had she been shy about telling her so – reading her the riot act, to be precise - whilst taping said bruised ribs and applying medi-gel to mend the two that were cracked.

The " _I told you so,"_ written all over Miranda's face the one time she'd come to visit had been almost as hard to take as the condescending note from The Illusive Man she'd delivered to her bedside.

Whenever Castle hadn't been standing his watch in the CIC, he hadn't let her out of his sight. He doted on her constantly, and though she would have practically begged for that only a few weeks ago, she was starting to feel stifled and claustrophobic. As much as she enjoyed having his undivided attention, sitting idle for three whole days had just about driven her insane and had ordered the FTL jump to rendezvous with the privately operated prison ship Purgatory shortly after she'd returned to duty.

* * *

 **Prison Ship ISV Purgatory**

From his office just off the command deck of the Purgatory, Warden Apwar Kuril watched as ISV Normandy came alongside and docked. Once his aide had confirmed that hard seal had been achieved, he rose from his desk and headed for the turbolift to meet them in the visitor processing center on deck four. Though he didn't care much for distractions to the prisoners' routine – at least one or two prisoners tried to make a break for it whenever a ship docked with Purgatory - Cerberus could move a lot of credits, well worth the distraction. This deviation from his ship's usual route might prove to be more profitable than even his newly arrived guest knew.

When Beckett, Castle Grunt and Garrus disembarked from the airlock, they stepped into a well-appointed visitor center, clearly Purgatory was well accustomed to receiving VIP guests.

"Welcome to the Purgatory, Captain," the guard captain stated coolly, getting straight to business. "Your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly."

Kate hadn't been terribly thrilled with the idea of springing one of her potential squad-mates from prison as it was, but still rankled at the thought of them referring to a person as "it" instead of "her." She liked what the Turian – Blue Suns insignia emblazoned on his armor for all to see - said next even less.

"As this is a high security vessel, you'll need to relinquish your weapons before we can proceed with our transaction."

Kate's hand immediately gripped the pistol at her side, her eyes flashing with defiance.

"I'll relinquish one bullet," she growled, which elicited a low rumbling chuckle from Grunt, "where do you want it?"

Just off her left shoulder, she could almost feel the big krogan bristle, practically spoiling for a fight, which made the guard captain take a step back. Weapons were drawn, but Kate's hand was still only covering the butt of her pistol as Warden Kuril stepped off the lift,

"Everyone, stand down!" he barked to his guards who complied cautiously. "Captain Beckett, I am Warden Apwar Kuril, administrator of this facility. Asking our guests to disarm is standard procedure, your weapons will be returned to you on your way out."

Had this been an officially sanctioned, government-run facility, Kate might have complied and turned over her weapons, but there was something about this " _Warden Kuril"_ that she just didn't trust – and the Blue Suns Mercenary uniform he wore was only part of it. Something about his eyes and mannerisms just didn't feel right. He didn't so much look at her as look through her as though measuring her worth and it gave her the creeps. No way was she gonna go _anywhere_ with him unarmed.

"I'm not surrendering my guns," she challenged, hoping he wasn't of a mind to screw over The Illusive man. "Period."

Kuril and Beckett glared at each other for several seconds. Purgatory's warden didn't much like having his authority challenged, but neither did she, only she held the advantage of having a heavily armed frigate docked alongside. She could almost see Kuril running the numbers in his head before he blinked first and backed down, relaxing his stance.

"Let them proceed," Kuril stated as if discussing the weather. "Our facility is more than secure enough to handle four armed guests."

With a perfunctory nod of his head, the rest of his security and administrative personnel resumed their duties, though the guards still eyed Kate and her squad warily as Kuril waved them through security to follow him deeper into the ship.

"Each of the prisoners here brings in a fee from their homeworld, Every one of them is a dangerous violent offender and as such, their home planets pay handsomely to keep them here knowing that if they refuse to pay, we'll be forced to release their prisoner... at an unspecified place and time."

"You blackmail them with the prisoners," Grunt offered with a low, rumbling chuckle.

"We're retrieving Jack from solitary confinement in cryo," Kuril continued, ignoring Grunt's comment as they passed into the prison facility section of the ship. "As soon as the funds clear to secure her parole, you can be on your way. Prisoner Out-processing is this way."

As they continued down the long corridor, the walkway opened up to reveal a series of modular cells and prisoners moving along a heavily guarded walkway just below them.

"I was in law enforcement on Palaven," Kuril added before Kate could ask anything, clearly noting her change in body language, "and got sick of seeing criminals evade incarceration – either through escape or legal trickery – only to see them go back out into the galaxy to continue their crimes. Bounty hunters aren't reliable, too many of them are criminals themselves. Eventually I came upon this idea when I toured a ship like this one carrying livestock between colony worlds: Keep the criminals in space, where they have no hope of escape, and make the galaxy safer."

"Purgatory holds thirty cell blocks, housing thousands of criminals in addition to the cryo wing for the more incorrigible or violent inmates," Kuril noted almost by rote as they continued along, clearly not the first time he had given this tour. "Each prisoner's cell is a self contained modular unit and we keep tight control over the population. We can put the entire ship on lockdown within seconds and I've blown more than one prisoner out the airlocks as an example to the others to maintain order. Nothing goes wrong here."

Kate was almost aghast at the notion that Kuril had been a cop once – especially on the Turian homeworld. Their meritocracy was a model of efficiency and morality.

"These prisoners don't merit your pity" Kuril went on misreading her shocked expression. "These cells hold the worst sapient life has to offer and somebody has to do something to keep the galaxy safe from them. You don't have to approve of my methods, but don't question my motives. Governments are soft, unwilling to make the hard choices. The... _people_ incarcerated here are despicable scum and I'm keeping them locked up for the good of everyone."

"Wh... what... can you tell me about Jack?" Kate asked, feeling the beginnings of a panic attack nibbling at the edges of her consciousness and doing her best to conceal it (only partially succeeding). She still had nightmares about being spaced - woke from them drenched in sweat and struggling to breathe. She needed a moment to recover, to do the breathing exercises Lanie had taught her, but there were too many strangers nearby to lower her guard.

"Cerberus hasn't told you?" Kuril muttered incredulously "Jack is the meanest, angriest handful of violence and hate ever to be housed in this facility. She's an incredibly gifted, powerful biotic and a borderline psychopath. There was an... incident when she first joined the population. Shortly after she got out of the infirmary, she went on a rampage, killing eight prisoners and two guards before she was brought down. We've kept her in cryo ever since."

Nothing about Kuril's attitude was making Kate feel any better about this ship. It was clear there was a lot he was leaving out about his treatment of the prisoners in general and Jack in particular.

"Let's get on with this," Castle stated, drawing Kuril's attention away from Kate. He'd seen the sudden shift in her posture at the very notion of the warden spacing people and his ire with Kuril grew in proportion with his urge to protect Kate. More than once since they'd started sharing a bed again, she'd snapped awake, trying to scream, but no sound would come out as she fought to breathe.

"I'm going back to my office to confirm that the funds from Cerberus cleared " Kuril stated pointing down the hallway before turning back toward the lift. "Out-processing is straight down that hallway past the supermax wing. I'll catch up with you later, Captain."

Though Kuril's sudden departure seemed suspicious to both Castle and Beckett, both were glad of the sudden reprieve. Kate's right hand drifted downward, momentarily hooking her ring and pinky fingers with his, the feather-light brush of fingers lasting only long enough for Kate to ground herself and keep her dignity intact.

Once Kate had centered herself, and turned her attention back to the moment and the task at hand, they continued down the corridor through the supermax wing. They had only made it halfway across when a voice rang out, seeking their attention.

"Hey! You out there" the young man called out from behind security glass. His jumpsuit identified him as Prisoner seven hundred eighty. From the look of him he couldn't be much older than his mid-twenties. "If you're buying prisoners, can you buy me?" I don't care where you take me, or what you do to me, it's gotta be better than this."

"Get yourself out," Grunt rumbled menacingly, "we're here for Jack."

"Jack?" the prisoner replied, paling visibly. "Forget what I just said, I don't wanna go nowhere with you."

"I thought this ship was a prison, not a market," Kate stated.

"Sometimes people buy cons so they can do some punishing of their own if you know what I mean," Seven eighty replied. "If they can afford to pay more than the Warden is getting to keep them here, or a con gets on his bad side, like Bimmy."

"What did Bimmy do?" Kate asked.

"When Jack first got here," seven eighty replied, "Warden had her dropped into Gen-pop before her transit cocktail wore off. Most of us haven't seen a woman in over a decade... no way he didn't know what would happen next. Bimmy and his friends... messed her up pretty bad. Almost killed her by the time the screws broke it up."

Any sympathy Kate might have had for this " _Bimmy"_ evaporated at that point. Given that Jack was only a few years older than Alexis, the flicker of dark energy limning Castle's features made it clear what would happen if he got his hands on him, too. Warden Kuril was squarely on both of their shit lists.

"If the warden wanted to break her, it backfired... turns out Jack's more trouble than he or Bimmy and his bunch bargained for, mixed with some crazy and way too much biotic power. When she got out of the infirmary, she went psycho and killed em all... including the two guards who turned a blind eye. Bimmy only made it 'cause he pissed off the warden and ended up in the hole. What the screws do to cons in there... woulda been more merciful to let Jack take him... I wouldn't wanna be Bimmy right now."

Kate turned and walked away with a growl of disgust, followed closely by Castle and the others. Though he was every bit as disgusted with Kuril and his prison ship, his attention was fixed more on his wife. She seemed to have recovered from earlier, but that didn't stop him from worrying.

Kate stalked through the doors into Out-processing. Were it not for the thousands or people aboard, she was seriously considering ordering the Normandy to open fire on Purgatory when her business with Kuril was complete. Barring that, she just wanted to secure Jack and get the hell away from there.

The nervous-looking attendant nearly choked on his own tongue when he saw Grunt follow Beckett and Castle past his desk. He directed her to the door at the back of the room and beat a hasty retreat.

When the hatch opened it revealed an empty cell.

"My apologies, Captain," Kuril's voice stated over the intercom. "You're more valuable to me as a prisoner than as a client. Drop your weapons and proceed into this open cell. You will not be harmed."

"You talked up your noble intentions with this prison," Kate replied angrily as she drew her rifle and nodded to the others to do the same, "but it turns out you're a criminal like all the rest."

Grunt chuckled as he withdrew his rifle and automatic shotgun, one in each hand. Eager for battle.

"Activate systems!" Kuril shouted into the comms. "Reinforce Out-processing! Beckett and her squad are loose!"

Moments later, when Kuril's Blue Suns guards burst into Outprocessing, Grunt roared and attacked them, shooting three and sending the others sprawling. A squad of Loki mechs moved in to support them, Castle and Garrus moved up and engaged them, Castle tore one off its feet and slammed it into the two mechanical dogs that followed, reducing them all to scrap. Kate employed her own limited biotics in a similar fashion

Between the four of them, they pushed the Suns back out into the corridor and turned toward the cryo wing. When another squad moved up to stop them, Grunt once again charged them with reckless abandon and the others were forced to support him. After clearing that group, there was nothing standing between them and the control room for the entire facility.

No sooner had the door opened than the technician turned on them with a pistol and opened fire, forcing them to duck aside. Castle yanked him off his feet and smashed him into ceiling, then the deck.

Kate inspected the cryo pod console and noted that the technician had begun the process of sabotaging the controls. They'd stopped him before he could finish the job, but he had managed to smash the console that would allow her to open individual cryo pods. Only one console had escaped his efforts.

"That will open every door in the cell block," Garrus cautioned.

"Can't be helped," Castle replied, "if we want to get Jack out of here."

"I'm doing it," Kate confirmed, keying the console sequence, "stand ready."

An alarm sounded, as every cell door opened all throughout the cell block. Down in the cryo bay, a robotic arm swung around and lifted a cryo pod from its housing to reveal a human shaped figure secured to a gurney.

When the steam cleared, the slender figure of a young woman in her mid twenties became clearly visible. She was dressed in leather pants and little more than a halter top from the waist up, revealing tattoos from the waist of her leather pants up to her shoulders and down her arms.

"Jack is small," Grunt rumbled incredulously.

Faster than anyone thought possible, Jack's hands began to twitch, her brown eyes opened and scanned the room. Her face twisted into a snarl as she struggled with the wrist restraints, freeing first one arm then the other. With her hands free, she set to work on the neck restraint and wrenched it apart.

After dispensing with the remaining restraints, she stumbled out of the cryo pod gripping the handholds for support. Three YMR class heavy mechs activated and turned toward her, raising their weapons menacingly. Jack braced her hands on the rails and with a flare of dark energy she launched herself at the mechs with the angry shriek of a wounded animal. She tore the first two mechs apart with biotics then used the third as a breaching charge when it's reactor detonated tearing a whole in the bulkhead. She fled past the smoking wreckage of the mechs and disappeared from view.

"Oh, I wanna see this!" Grunt exclaimed, having newfound respect for the small woman her had dismissed only moments before. "Let's go, I wanna see how long she can last!"

As Kate led them down the main stairwell into the cryo pod chamber they could see it was wrecked, the other pods put on emergency standby as the robotic arm to raise them was little more than twisted metal along with the three demolished mechs and the hole blasted into the wall.

"All guards, restore order!" Kuril shouted over the intercom, "Lethal force authorized, but don't kill Jack! Techs! Lockdown, Lockdown!"

As Castle, Beckett and the others carefully picked their way past the shattered wreckage and into the corridors the entire ship seemed to shudder.

" _Warning! Warning!"_ the feminine sounding ship's VI announced calmly. " _Sectors seven, nine and eleven have lost life support. No survivors."_

"Find Jack!" Kuril cut in on the intercom. "Find Jack! All guards to cell block one!"

Kate and her squad fought their way through sporadic, disorganized groups of guards and more than a few prisoners on their way back toward the Normandy. It was clear that the prisoners hoped to force their way aboard. But scavenged weapons were no match against well armed combat trained soldiers.

When they made it to the main corridor outside of the reception area, Kuril and his most loyal guards were waiting for them, having barricaded themselves on the far side.

"You're valuable, Beckett!" Kuril ranted, "I could have sold you to the Batarians and lived like a king, but you're too much trouble! At least I can recapture Jack!"

"Not happening!" Kate shot back as she and the others took cover. "You're a two-bit slave trader and I won't let you get away with it!"

"I do the hard things civil governments are unwilling to do!" Kuril continued to rant. "This is for the good of the galaxy!"

"Bullshit!" Kate shouted, her next volley of fire taking out the shield generator that kept Kuril and his men covered. With little more than a nod, Grunt charged their position under covering fire from, her and Garrus just before Castle vaulted forward and slammed into Kuril, dropping him with a shotgun blast at close range. Between him and Grunt the rest of his men were felled in short order.

They could hear running footsteps just above them on the maintenance catwalks, followed by the sound of crushing bones and the sound of bodies being slammed against deckplates.

When Kate and her crew reached the reception area, three mercs had their guns pointed at Jack.

"Stop!" one of them shouted, but she charged then anyway her biotics lifting all three of them off the ground and slamming them on opposite walls to the sound of shattered bone. Jack tried to access the airlock controls, but Jenny dutifully denied her access without proper authorization. She paced back and forth across the deck like a caged animal.

A single guard she hadn't accounted for raised a shotgun at her back from cover, but before he could pull the trigger, Kate drilled him through the chest with a single, well placed shot from her rifle.

Jack wheeled around and glared at them as Kate folded up her rifle and stowed it.

"What the hell do you want?" Jack snapped at them.

"You mean, other than save your ass?" Kate asked.

"You mean him?" Jack asked with a nod towards the Turian merc Kate had taken down. "He was already dead, he just didn't know it yet. Now what the hell do you want?"

"I came to get you off this ship," Kate replied.

"Only people with the money or connections for the warden to even think about letting me go is Cerberus." Jack growled, her eyes glowing with hatred. "If you're with them, I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"I'm offering to be your friend," Kate said."Trust me, you don't want to be my enemy."

"You show up in a nice shiny Cerberus frigate and want to take me away somewhere," Jack shot back, "you think I'm stupid?"

Another shudder rocked the ship.

" _Attention! Attention!"_ the VI interrupted. _"Power plant damage has lead to critical overload. Core systems failure imminent."_

"In case you missed it, this ship is going down in flames." Kate added, "We can get you to safety and I'm _asking_ for your help."

"Make it worth my while," Jack replied.

"What were you thinking?" Kate asked.

"I bet your ship has access to all sorts of Cerberus databases," Jack husked, it was clear she had no love for Cerberus, "I want to look at those files and see what Cerberus has on me. You want me on your team, those are my terms."

"Done," Kate replied, hoping The Illusive Man wasn't kidding about the breadth of her authority, "you'll get full access."

"You better be straight up with me," Jack warned.

"Jenny, this is Captain Beckett," Kate said, "Unlock and open on my authority."

As the airlock cycled and opened, Kate ordered them to move out. Jack paused to look out the window at the Normandy, unsure what she'd gotten herself into. Her only consolation was that Kuril, the piece of shit that had set her up to be abused again was dead and his precious Purgatory was going down in flames.

Her revenge was complete.

* * *

 **Conference Room  
ISV Normandy**

When Castle and Beckett entered the conference room after changing out of their battle armor, it was clear that Miranda hadn't waited to begin debriefing Jack. Given the young woman's stress level, it was clear that she was not at all receptive to Miranda's efforts.

Jack, I'm the ranking Cerberus operative and Captain Beckett's executive officer," Miranda reprimanded, "On this ship, we follow orders."

"Tell the Cerberus cheerleader to back off, Beckett," Jack interrupted, not even bothering to address Miranda. "I'm here for our deal, not her bullshit."

"Miranda will let you into the system," Kate asserted, exchanging glares with the Cerberus operator, "Let me know what you find."

"Hear that, precious?" Jack cooed sarcastically, "We're gonna be best friends. You, me, and every dirty little secret."

With a final glare at Kate, Miranda shoved a data pad into Jack's hands and stalked from the room in a huff, clearly unhappy with the current turn of events. Though Kate was distracted by Miranda's withdrawal, Castle's attention was on Jack. The young woman seemed pleased with herself on the surface, but her eyes betrayed something darker, more primal. A biological marker Castle couldn't help but pick up on. The seething, unfocused, near bottomless anger layered over the pain of an abused child.

"I'll be reading down in the hold, or somewhere near the bottom," Jack said to Kate, unaware of Castle's focus on her, "I don't like a lot of through traffic. Keep your people off me... better that way."

* * *

 **ISV Normandy Ventral Cargo Hold**  
 **Later that night**

Castle announced his presence in the cargo hold, bearing a cup of coffee and a meal that he knew as a biotic was essential to maintaining proper energy levels. When he finally caught sight of her, Jack was cross legged on a cot concealed by carefully stacked cargo containers reading the Cerberus files on the data pad. Alexis had done something similar when she'd suffered from night terrors as a child - especially when he'd been scheduled to deploy.

He'd agonized for hours over what to do. On the one hand, was his concern that Jack's personal enmity with Cerberus might jeopardize Kate's mission, which he couldn't allow - the stakes were simply too high. On the other was Jack – he saw the anger and pain that lingered behind her eyes and couldn't help but think of his own daughter. He couldn't simply turn a blind eye and use her for their own purposes - too many people in her life had done just that. The only way he could reconcile what was best for the mission and what was best for Jack was to talk to her. What she chose to tell him – if anything – would be up to her.

"You don't have to live in this hole you know," he said by way of greeting, leaving the tray on a waist level set of cargo containers and stepped back away from it.

"It's dark, quiet and hard to find," Jack replied, snatching the tray of food and retreating back to the bunk "that spells safety to me."

"What's your story, Jack?" he asked carefully,

"I'm still learning about my... story," she replied, slightly confused. She nodded uncomfortably at the pad next to her, clearly not used to people who kept their word. "Thank your wife for me... for getting these files."

"Find anything interesting?" Castle asked. He was, admittedly interested, but wary not to press her too hard, concerned she might shut down on him. The last thing he wanted was a violent confrontation. Nor did he want her to think he was only "handling" her for Cerberus.

"Your Cerberus friends are into some nasty shit," Jack replied. "I'm gonna find something I can use, I just know it."

"And if you don't find the answer you're looking for?" he asked.

"I'm not looking for answers," Jack replied darkly, "I'm looking for names, dates, places. When I find 'em," she cocked her head.,"I'm gonna go hunting. Anyone who's screwed with me is gonna pay. Their friends pay, their associates pay. The galaxy's gonna be a lot less crowded when I'm done."

"Kate didn't break you out of that hellhole so you could go on a killing spree," Castle warned, the sharpest he'd been with her since his arrival. He might sympathize with Jack, but his loyalties still lay squarely with Kate.

"I'm here for Beckett's mission, Castle," Jack shot back defiantly. "I pay my debts. After that, what I do is my business."

"And Cerberus?" Castle asked. "I'm no fan of them myself, but you really seem to hate them."

"I was raised in a Cerberus research facility," Jack replied, seeming to curl in on herself at the mere mention of it, "escaped when I was a kid. Been on the run ever since, and they've never stopped chasing me. But if I find what I'm looking for... I'm gonna chase them."

Castle was aghast at the idea that even Cerberus would be so depraved as to perform experiments on children.

"I go to sleep with this," Jack continued softly, more vulnerable than he'd seen her, "I wake up with it. Every person I kill... I pretend it's the people who did this to me."

Castle's mind was filled with questions, but it was clear that Jack was beginning to close herself off, her attention once again drawn to the data pad on her bunk. Though she didn't spare him another word it was clear that she wanted him to leave, so he did. He wondered what had happened to Jack's family, the people who should have been there to protect her from the monsters who had done this to her. How the universe could have failed her so very badly.

He needed to call his own daughter to make sure she was settled in back at school, if only to hear her voice.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** There will be more of Jack's story coming further down the line. I hope I can do her proper justice. What was done to her in oder to make a powerful human biotic was Dr. Mengele level depraved stuff.  
**_


	9. Horizon

**Chapter Nine  
Horizon**

* * *

" _Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea  
All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see  
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind"_  
Kansas: "Dust In The Wind"

* * *

It was quiet in the Normandy's exercise room. During the day-watch, it would be crowded with off duty personnel, but during the low-watch, it was dimly lit and devoid of distractions, just the way Ann Hastings liked it. She was familiar with the former SR1 personnel, but they had been – and to some degree still were – subordinates and the old habits of non-fraternization died hard. Though she'd had little other choice than to join the ranks of Cerberus, she still couldn't bring herself to trust any of them. Master Chief Spartan seemed pretty squared away, but the side-eye some of the others gave Garrus or Dr. Solus when they thought nobody was looking made her skin crawl.

But the primary reason she liked the quiet space during the dimly lit low watch was the peace with which to train with the elegant, razor sharp Katana in her hands as she walked the forms of the ancient art of Kendo. The weapon was nearly five hundred years old - a throwback to another era of warfare entirely - a gift, presented by James Blackthorne Toronaga, the governor of a small backwater colony in the Attican Traverse for rescuing his daughter from Batarian slavers.

Before that day, her call sign had been _"Annie Oakley"_ , but the following morning - after killing the seven member raiding party single handed in the woods at night (three with her combat knife after her heat sink ejection port jammed) and returned the small group of children to the settlement – her CO changed it to _"Lone Vengeance"_. As a consequence of her action, however, her career in the Special Forces came to an abrupt halt, her face and name too highly publicized by an extranet media starved for heroes for her to operate in the shadows her chosen profession demanded.

It had taken her years to learn how to properly handle the blade, to master the art of Kendo with the proficiency and respect such an elegant weapon demanded, but those forms had since become as natural to her as breathing and the weapon a natural extension of her hands. She found her dedication to the ancient martial art deeply fulfilling- rivaled only by her dedication to the Maker.

Her low watch routine was an emotional center in a universe that for Ann Hastings had been turned upside down one time too many.

* * *

 **The Following Morning**

"Captain to the CIC" Hastings' voice rang out clear as day over the ship's internal comm system.

Kate had been nearly fully dressed so she applied the final stroke of her eye liner, pulled her hair into a severe ponytail and put on her uniform jacket. Castle met her as she emerged with two cups of his glorious coffee.

 _'How the hell does he have time to do that and still look put together in the morning?'_ she thought to herself, trying not to moan out loud as she took her first sip of the day while they stepped into the lift to the combat deck. No sooner had they stepped out into the CIC, buzzing with activity during the morning watch, Hastings turned to them.

"The Illusive Man wishes to speak with you in the briefing room at your convenience, Captain."

 _'Speaking to him is never convenient,'_ Kate thought to herself, but bit that thought back, there were too many listening devices on the ship to risk badmouthing the Cerberus leader out loud. The six audio and video listening devices Castle had found and disposed of last night from their cabin alone before telling her about his conversation with Jack were somewhat creepy, including the one he'd found in the bathroom. She would definitely be having a conversation with Miranda about the necessity for that one later.

"Let's go see what he wants that couldn't wait five minutes," she said to Castle. "Hastings, you have the deck."

* * *

After the briefing room doors slid closed, Kate activated the Quantum Entanglement Communicator terminal. The table retracted into the floor prompting her and Castle to step into the center of where the opening in the table had been to be actively scanned – creating a 3D hologram of the two of them for transmission to the Illusive Man's office on Chronos Station whilst simultaneously creating a similar holographic environment on their end.

"Captain Beckett, Commander Castle," The Illusive man greeted tersely, but with an air of excited determination. "I think we have them! Horizon Colony in the Terminus Systems just went silent. If it isn't under attack, it soon will be. Has Doctor Solus delivered a countermeasure for the Seeker Swarms?"

"Not yet," Kate replied. Castle was strangely silent, apparently attempting to get a measure of the man.

"I hope he works well under pressure," Wood replied, then changed tack sharply after a short pause for effect. "There's something else you should know. One of your former crew, Lt Javier Esposito is stationed on Horizon."

"Last I knew he was still in the Alliance," Castle blurted out, "what's he doing out in the Systems?"

"Officially, he's there as part of an outreach program to improve Alliance relations with the outer colonies," Wood replied, "but I think Alliance High Command is up to something. If they've sent a CID operative like Lt. Esposito it must be big, but you should probably take that up with him."

"The Collectors just happen to target a colony where one of my former crew is stationed?" Kate asked, an eyebrow arching up incredulously. "It sounds like a setup."

"It shouldn't be a surprise that the Collectors are interested in you, especially if they're agents of the Reapers. They're likely targeting him to get to you."

"I'll send a message to Councilor Montgomery," Castle added. "Perhaps the Alliance could send reinforcements."

"Not before you investigate," Wood replied. "There is always the possibility they're simply having communications problems. If it is them, I don't want the Alliance getting in the way. Once you have the situation under control, I'll send the distress call personally."

"Okay," Kate replied, "send me the coordinates and we'll head straight there."

"This is the most warning we've ever had, Captain." Wood added in closing, "Good luck."

With a swipe of his fingers, Wood cut the channel from his end and the briefing room once again solidified around them.

"CIC, Briefing room," Kate stated tersely. "Hastings spool up the FTL drive and start the clock on a combat jump to the Iera system in the Shadow Sea Star Cluster. Destination: Horizon Colony. I have to go see the professor. Set condition one throughout the ship."

"Aye, Aye, Captain," came Hastings reply.

* * *

 **Normandy Science Lab**

Castle and Beckett entered Dr. Solus' lab to find him hard at work at a computer terminal, his delicate three- fingered hands a blur on the keys. Nearby in an isolation chamber hovered a small insectoid creature periodically attempting to sting them only to be stopped by the transparent walls and isolation field. Kate had known they'd brought back samples, but hadn't realized Vikram had brought back an actual live seeker. Castle tapped the glass, utterly fascinated by the small creature in spite of his usual trepidation regarding insect life.

Kate was still unsure about how she felt about Mordin Solus, given his earlier confession to her, but she knew there was little time for her misgivings. She had a mission to complete and time was of the essence. They needed that seeker swarm countermeasure.

"Tell me you have something," she asked when Mordin finally looked away from the haptic screen to recognize her presence.

Mordin took another look at his data, chastised Castle with a sharp look and a cough for disturbing his specimen then turned back to her with an enthusiastic nod.

"Yes."

He motioned them both over to his workstation and brought up a 3D wire-frame projection of Kate's body armor including a new set of schematics added to the kinetic barrier projectors followed by a chemical diagram for a sensor refractive coating.

* * *

 **Horizon Colony  
That same moment**

Horizon was an idyllic garden world. It's verdant rolling hills forming peaceful vistas rivaling even the early days of Eden Prime. A pristine world for its colonists to call home far away from Alliance space.

The morning's quiet shattered by the crunching of boots on the unpaved path between colony outbuildings as Javier Esposito walked alongside Lilith, the colony administrator. It was abundantly clear from the dirty looks and sideways glances he got that nobody wanted him there.

"Lilith, we have a problem," he said.

" _Still_ can't calibrate the targeting matrix?" she asked.

"The defense towers will be useless if we don't get it sorted out," Esposito replied, "but the techs got pulled off without notice this morning."

"Sorry Lieutenant," Lilith replied, "but the comms went down last night and getting them back online takes priority."

"Yeah, okay," Esposito grumbled sarcastically. "Surprised Delan hasn't tried to blame _that_ one on me too."

"People out here just don't trust the Alliance, especially Delan," she soothed diplomatically. "Don't take it personally."

Espo was about to make a snarky comeback when a loud shuddering rumble shook the very air around them and a large shape began to emerge from the cloud cover overhead. He slipped his Avenger assault rifle from his shoulder and dialed in the scope to get a closer look at what was clearly a large ship dropping from the clouds. One that had figured into his nightmares for the last two years. A ship nearly identical to the one that had killed Normandy and his former partner.

"Get everyone to the safe house," he stated with such deadly calm he terrified Lilith with his coldness.

A cloud of tiny shapes so dense it darkened the air around it emerged from the forked bow of the ship which galvanized him into action.

"Go!" he shouted. "I'll cover you! Run!"

Espo stood his ground as Lilith fled, coolly switching to full auto and selecting explosive incendiary rounds before he opened fire. His shots had little effect on the dark cloud that roiled ever closer like a plague of locusts as Lilith and the other colonists ran for the shelter.

Espo fired another long burst with his rifle before he felt a sting on his neck. He reached back and pulled the hand-sized creature from his neck and looked at it before crushing it and tossing it aside, but three more were on him before the dead one hit the ground. He turned to fall back to the safe house, but was frozen in place. A living statue, still aware, forced to watch as the seeker swarm descended on the civilians, none of whom made it to the safety of the bunker.

With the colony secured, all of the colonists outside frozen in a grim tableau reminiscent of Greek myth, the Collectors emerged and began to move them into stasis pods. One of them moved to take Esposito, but was stopped in its tracks by a disembodied rumbling voice that sounded as old as time and dark as sin.

"We are the harbingers of their perfection," the disembodied voice commanded. "Leave this one, prepare the others for ascension."

* * *

 **One hour later**

Normandy's UT 47 Kodiak shuttle landed on Horizon on the outskirts of the primary settlement, then launched itself skyward after depositing Castle, Beckett, Garrus and Jack. As the four of them cleared out of the LZ and moved quickly toward the colony proper, they were taken by how quiet it was, disturbed only by their own footfalls, which sounded unusually loud in the brooding silence of what was once a bustling community.

The Collector ship loomed over the colony standing fully upright like a Saturn V rocket re-imagined by H. R. Giger. Castle and Beckett both shivered almost involuntarily at the sight of the thing, memories of the attack on the Normandy SR1 still lived as vivid nightmares in their minds.

All of their armor had been upgraded with Dr. Solus' anti seeker swarm camoflage system designed to cloak their lifesigns from the seeker swarms who were tuned to human biofeedback along with an outer coating to reflect indirect scans and mask their heat signatures. Though it had taken some time to convince Jack to cover her tattoos – until she saw the black biker style jacket for herself and declared that it looked badass. (after tearing off the Cerberus shoulder patch, and dropping it at Miranda's feet)

"We're groundside," Kate announced into the comm after shaking off her trepidation. "Mordin, are you sure these armor upgrades will protect us from the seeker swarms?"

"Certainty impossible," Mordin replied. "But in limited numbers should confuse detection, make you invisible to swarms... in theory."

"In theory?" Castle snarked. "That sounds promising."

"Experimental technology," Mordin explained as if he were back teaching again. "Only way to test effectiveness is contact with seeker swarms. Need more data. Will monitor. Look forward to seeing if you survive."

They continued deeper into the colony, but found little sign of the colonists. Only their possessions dropped on the ground remained to mark that they had been there at all.

"Cap...n ...etting... interference" came the broken attempt at a comm check from Hastings before the comms went dead, "...can't maintai..."

"Collector ship is jamming communications," Garrus noted, to a nod of agreement from Jack, "Guess now we know why none of the colonies got word out."

"We're on our own unless we can get to the primary transmitter tower," Castle noted, "with Normandy in close orbit maybe Jenny can patch us in though the jamming."

"Okay people saddle up," Kate ordered. "Garrus, you have point. Keep the chatter to a minimum, check your corners and watch your spacing. Charge and lock. Move out."

Their first engagement with the collectors came as a surprise for both sides. It was a small group supported by husks sweeping for frozen colonists. They had clearly never planned for being interrupted after pacifying a colony before. Jack and Castle hit them hard with biotics supported by Garrus and Kate and the skirmish was over nearly as quickly as it had begun. By the time the echo faded, the small group lay dead.

"Those things looked like the husks the geth used on Eden Prime," Castle noted with disgust.

"I thought you said the geth got that shit from Sovereign?" Jack asked.

"I guess the Illusive man was right," Kate sighed heavily, "the Collectors really are allied with the Reapers."

"Looks human," Jack noted with a shiver she tried quickly to hide, "guess we know what happned to the colonists."

"No," Castle replied, "the geth impaled people on giant retractable spikes on Eden Prime to turn the colonists there into husks, trust me, you'd know 'em if you saw 'em."

"The Collectors must have already had the husks then," Kate added, picking up on Castle's line of thought.

"These husks aren't the same as the ones on Eden Prime either," Castle replied, "they look more advanced, evolved."

"The Collectors want the colonists alive for something else!" They said in unison, turnig to look at each other.

Jack looked over at Garrus quizzically, who shrugged and rolled his eyes at them. He'd seen the Castle/Beckett shared brain thing enough times to be used to it, but still found it more than a little creepy.

"The fuckers still die when you shoot em," Jack snarked imaptiently. "If you two are done verbally making out, can we go kill em now?"

"Yeah, the collectors aren't getting away with any more victims," Kate stated clearly, her cheeks a light shade of pink. "Move out."

"Whatever you say, boss lady," Jack shot back with a mock salute. The small group formed a single file line again and moved deeper into the colony.

The further they got into the colony, the quieter and more abandoned it seemed to have become. The silence and idyllic beauty of the setting which would normally have a had a calming effect on them instead seemed to do the opposite under the shadow of the massive nightmare Collector ship, they all felt like they were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Peaceful," Jack commented nervously. "Usually takes a _lot_ of chemicals for me to get this kinda quiet."

"All these empty buildings, desserted streets," Castle noted, his eyes drawn to a children's playground devoid of any sign of life other than abandoned toys, the swings swaying in the breeze as if only recently abandoned, "it's unsettling."

"This place is seriously damaging my calm," Jack growled dangerously, gripping her heavy shotgun tightly.

The small group turned a corner to find another grouping of prefab colony buildings, along with colonists, seemingly frozen in the act of flight, pointed at a large, low slung building with a hardened foundation, near the center of the cluster of habitats. The emergency bunker, likely one of several on the colony grounds.

"Looks like some sort of stasis field," Castle said, looking at a woman and her child who looked like they'd stumbled, noting their eye movement as he scanned them with his omni-tool, "leaves the colonists frozen, but fully aware of their surroundings."

"They must've been like this for a while," Garrus added. "I wonder how long it lasts."

The group entred, then moved through an outbuilding that appeared to be an office, passing more of the frozen colonists – which Castle dutifully scanned - before moving back outside. No sooner had they moved deeper into the courtyard, than a more heavily supported group of collectors flew over the far wall on beetle like wings to land on the far side of the courtyard and opened fire with pulse rifles.

Castle and Beckett dove to one side for cover, Garrus the other, but Jack charged biotics and attacked the mass of them with a snarl. She swept four of them back into the air, smashed them together then slammed them into the far wall, following up with a shockwave that tore through the Collector ranks.

Castle's own biotics flared and he burst forward, slamming bodily into one of the insectoid looking bipeds that was taking a bead on Jack as Beckett and Garrus opened fire with their rifles from hastily scrabbled defensive positions.

" _Our power is unmatched,"_ a disembodied voice rubled through the courtyard. _"We are your salvation through destruction."_

"Shut the fuck up," Jack growled before crushing the last two collectors on the field with a singularity.

When the courtyard was quiet again, the group moved quickly picking their way carefully across the battlefield to the door of the secure shelter, which – though scarred and blackened by weapons fire - remained securely closed, its mechanism unresponsive to Kate's omni-tool query.

"Garrus, run a bypass," she ordered, and the turian set to work popping open the door panel and began reconfiguring the leads inside. In short order the massive, heavy door slid open and the four of them cautiously moved inside.

Jack, who had become hyperaware of her surroundings caught the movement in the shadows in the corner of her eye.

"Company," she growled, racking up her shotgun.

"Come out here," Kate commanded loudly, her voice echoing off the walls of the nearly empty shelter. "Right now."

Almost immediately, a man poked his head out of his hiding place in the shadows, then slowly skulked out into the open armed only with a complicated looking wrench. He looked to be a few years older than Castle with the grizzled air of a habitat engineer who'd spent more time coaxing life out of recalcitrant machines than dealing with people.

"You're human!" he noted, though it was hard to tell if he was surprised or offended. "What are you doing here? You'll lead those... things... right to me!"

"You had to hear them trying to get in, moron," Jack snarled, unimpressed, having killed at least six of them.

"Seems like it's hard to hide from the Collectors," Kate broke in, waving Jack off.

"Those things are Collectors?" the man muttered incredulously. "You mean... they're real? I thought they were just made up. You know... propaganda, to keep us in Alliance Space. Shit! They got Lilith, I saw her go down, Sten too! They got damned near everybody... even that Alliance rep they sent to spy on us!"

"I need to know what I'm up against," Kate interrupted his ramblings. "Tell me everything you remember."

"We lost our comms a few hours ago," he began haltingly. "I came down here to check the main grid. Then I heard people screaming. I came up to look outside and there was... swarms of... _bugs_. Everyone they touched just... froze. I held the doors as long as I could then buttoned up to keep 'em out."

The man seeemed to ruminate on his memories for a moment before his eyes flashed with anger.

"Damn it... it's all the Alliance's fault!" he ranted, "They sent that damned Lt. Esposito here to put up those gorram defense towers. Made us a target!"

"Tell us more about this Alliance rep," Castle noted, having seen the flash in Kate's eyes at the mention of Esposito, drawing the man's attention so she could gather herself.

"Esposito?" The man said with unconcealed contempt. "Heard he was some kind of hero or something. Didn't mean nothing to me though. Woulda rather he stayed back in Council Space where he belonged."

"Any idea what he was doing on Horizon?" Kate asked, interrogation mode fully back in place after her momentary lapse.

"Supposed to be here to help get the gorram defense towers up and running," he replied, "I got the feeling he was here for somethin else though... spying on us maybe."

"And the defense towers?" Castle pressed, falling back into their two-on-one approach.

"A _gift_ from the frelling Alliance," the man scoffed. "High-powered GARDIAN lasers. Supposed to drive hostile ships away from the colony. Had to build a massive underground generator just to give em enough juice, only Esposito couldn't get the targeting systems online. The Alliance gave us a giant set of heavy guns that can't fucking shoot straight, stupid sons of bitches!"

"Why do you think this is the Alliance's fault" Kate asked.

"We're just a small colony," the man went on, his contempt and mistrust of the Alliance clear, which Kate wasn't sure she could fault him for given her own circumstances. "Nobody bothered us before we started building those fucking defense towers and drew attention to ourselves. I left council space to get away from the Alliance... the rest of us too. Nothing good ever comes from getting mixed up with them fuckers."

"Tell that to the colonists at Freedom's Progress and Ferris Fields!" Castle snapped, his chest puffing out, an Alliance Combat Marine to the core. "The Collectors are targeting remote colonies up and down the Systems. The Alliance was trying to help, you arrogant asshole."

"We don't need their help," the man shot back, his own Irish coming up, "too many strings attached. That Lt. Esposito said he was just here to get the towers operational, but I think he was stallin'. Mark my words, there's more to it."

"Do you think we could use them against the Collector ship?" Kate asked, trying to keep the discussion on point.

"You might, but you'd need to calibrate the targeting system first," the man replied.

"We'll figure that out," Garrus added, "just give us the location."

"Head for the main transmitter tower in the center of the colony hub," the man replied tersely, "pretty hard to miss. You can access the targeting controls for all four towers through the maintenance panel on its base. I'll let you out, but I'm locking the door behind you, I'm not taking any chances. For what it's worth, good luck. I think you're gonna need it."

Beckett and her squad left the bunker, heard the heavy door snap shut behind them and moved out. The closer to the center of the colony and the massive Collector ship landed at the spaceport, the fewer frozen colonists they found, until they stopped finding any at all.

"Surprised we haven't run into any more colonists," Jack muttered, trying to cover her nerves.

"Probably been loaded onto the Collector ship already," Garrus replied. "We should hurry."

After a tense, but uneventful march into the center of the nearly desserted colony, the small element moved cautiously into the courtyard surrounding the colony complex's communications tower. Once the hub for social activity for Horizon Colony, now desloate and empty, but for the detritus left behind by fleeing colonists. Though there was no sign of collectors or husks, Kate knew this might change at any time.

"There's the maintenance port," Garrus husked before he pulled the panel and tapped their comms into the main transmitter and suddenly their comms snapped to life.

"Normandy to shore party," Hastings voice sounded desperate, "do you read?"

"Normandy this is Beckett," Kate stated into the comms.

"Signal's weak with all the all the jamming, but we read you," Hastings replied.

"Put Jenny on," Kate ordered.

" _Speaking Captain,"_ Jenny responded instantly,

"Jenny, can you get the colony defense towers online?" Kate asked.

" _Accessing,"_ Jenny replied, then a heartbeat later. _"Affirmative. Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified, but it will take fifteen minutes and twenty five point five two seconds to charge the defense towers to full power. However, I will not be able to mask the increased generator output."_

"Any recommendations?" Kate asked.

" _Only one,"_ Jenny replied. " _Enemy reinforcements are massing on your position. I suggest you ready weapons. Bypassing failsafes and attempting GARDIAN defense tower emergecy sequencial powerup. Please hold the communications tower."_

"Great," Jack snarked, ejecting the heat sink from her shotgun and loading a fresh one. "We get to play slap and tickle with _those_ things while she sorts out the batteries."

"You heard her people," Kate commanded, "take cover and make every shot count!"

The first wave of collectors swarmed over the walls within moments of Kate's command and they all took cover to defend the tower. Kate, Rick and Garrus opened opened up with massed rifle fire, Jack joined them with her shotgun as the collectors came within range before dropping a singularity on their line of attck, then following with a powerful shockwave that sent others flying.

" _Sequential powerup initiated."_ Jenny reported over the comms, _"GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at forty percent."_

The second wave began with massed husks flooding over the walls and the defenders' rifles chattered. Castle and Jack's biotics flared and they both burst forward, slamming into the husk lines, their combined charge flaring as they slammed home, shattering the attack with a flash of explosive biotic power while Kate and Garrus supported them with assault rifle fire.

" _GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at sixty percent. Synching targeting protocols to Normandy. Continue to defend the tower."_

With Castle and Jack back inside the defense perimeter, the four of them beat back the next wave of attackers with massed fire while Jack shored up their barriers. Though the Colectors were throwing overwhelming numbers at them, they knew they only had to hold out for a few more minutes.

" _GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at one hundred percent,"_ Jenny reported as the towers came on-line, _"I have control. Perimeter set. Targets locked. Firing for effect."_

One of the towers swiveled around and pounded the collectors, decimating their remaining force and cutting off their next wave of attack, then swiveled back around to join the other three in a coordinated barrage against the collector ship. The concentrated fire from four heavy weapons towers at point blank range scored repeated hits which burned through the ship's ablative armor and began to do actual damage. The ship engaged its engines and liftedoff and clawed its way spaceward, tracked the whole way by the defense towers even as it ascended past the clouds and disappeared from view.

"Beckett to Normandy," Kate commanded as soon as the jamming lifted. "Collector ship outbound. Hold station. Do not engage, I repeat, _do not_ engage. We have civilians down here who require immediate assistance, stand ready to deploy a disaster pod and get the colony's distress beacon cycling."

"They had no reason to stay," Garrus growled darkly, "they have most of the colonists aboard. They got what they came for."

"Damn it," Kate swore. She may have driven the Collectors off before they could take everyone, but it still didn't feel much like a victory. It felt even less like one when the aging mechanic from the bunker turned up.

"No!" he shouted, "Don't let em get away!"

"There's nothing we can do, our ship isn't a match for that thing," Kate replied. _'at least not until the Thannix cannon is fully operational,'_ she thought to herself. Garrus had its guts half disassembled in the weapons bay trying to get it properly synchronized with Normandy's power and targeting grid. A task better suited for someone like Tali, but he was doing the best he could.

"Half the colony's in there!" the man complained angrily. "They took Egan and Sam and Lilith! Do something!"

"We did the best we could," Castle shot back at him, biotics flaring as he bristled with anger. "All you did was hide in your damn bunker!"

"If it wasn't for Beckett, you'd _all_ be on that fucking ship, asshole!" Jack agreed.

"Beckett?" the man muttered, looking Kate up and down. "Wait, I know that name. Sure, I remember you, some sorta Alliance hero."

"Captain Kate Beckett," Esposito said as he stepped around a corner and into sight. "Commander of the Normandy, Hero of Elysium, the first human Spectre and Savior of the Citadel. You're in the presence of a demi-god, Delan, back from the dead."

"All the good people we lost, Esposito and you get left behind. Figures," Delan scoffed at him before turning to stalk away angrily, "Screw this, I'm done with you fucking Alliance types!"

"I thought you were dead, chica," Esposito directed at Kate, though it was clear he didn't sound all that happy with her. "We all did."

"You don't sound too happy to see me, Espo," Kate noted dryly. "Something bothering you?"

"You bet your ass, something's bothering me!" Esposito exploded, "I spent two years believeing you were dead, so did Castle there. I woulda followed you anywhere, why did you let us all belive you died?"

"It wasn't my choice, Espo," Kate replied, her own emotions beginning to run away with her, "I spent the last two years in a coma - or worse they way I hear it - while Cerberus put what was left of me back together."

"So the rumors are true then," Esposito replied darkly. "You really are with Cerberus now. I can't believe those reports were right."

"Reports?" Kate shot back, shoked. "You mean you already knew?"

"Alliance Intel thought Cerberus might be behind the missing colonists," Esposito explained, angrily glaring at Kate the whole time. "We got a tip this might be the next one hit along with rumors that you weren't dead, worse that you were working for the enemy. I went to Montgomery, but he wouldn't talk and Castle was off the damned grid. I guess now I know why."

"Cerberus isn't the enemy," Kate replied, "at least not this time. Just because we're _temporarily_ working together to stop the Collectors doesn't mean I answer to them."

"Do you really believe that," Esposito shot back, "or is that just what the Illusive Man wants you to think? I wanted to believe you were alive, but not that you'd turned your back on everything we stood for!"

"Espo, you know me," Kate pleaded, "you know I'd only do this for the right reason. You were here, you saw it for yourself. The Collectors are targeting human colonies and worse, I've found evidence they're working for the Reapers. The Council may have buried their heads in the sand about the Reaper threat, but I haven't. I'm still a Spectre and I'll do what I have to, work with whomever I have to in order to prevent those synthetic bastards from destroying _us_ like they did the Protheans."

"I want to believe you Beckett, but I don't trust Cerberus and it scares the shit outta me that all of a sudden you do." Espo shot back, not backing down an inch. "What did they do to you? What if they're the ones behind the attacks? What if they're the ones working with the Collectors and using the Reaper thing to sway you into helping them?

"Dammit Esposito!" Garrus exclaimed in exasperation. "You're so focused on Cerberus that you're ignoring the real threat!"

"I have more reason to hate Cerberus than all of you _combined_ ," Jack interjected, shocking even herself, "I don't trust a goddamn thing out of the Cerberus cheerleader's mouth about their fucking " _noble agenda for humanity_ ", but even _I_ get that they might be right this time, you fuckwit!"

"Is there no way to reason with you," Kate pleaded again, "nothing I can say to get you to believe me?"

"You turn up bolt out of the blue after two years... working with Cerberus?" Espo growled angrily. "Sounds like you left _reason_ behind long ago. Doesn't matter, I haven't forgotten where my loyalties lie. I'm an Alliance Marine, it's in my blood. I'm reporting back to the Citadel. I'll let the brass decide if they believe your story."

"We both know how that'll turn out," Castle snarled at him, his fists balled at his sides biotics flaring with pent up rage, "they'll blame Cerberus and list Kate as a traitor just like you did."

"With good reason, Cerberus can't be trusted," Esposito shot back. "So long, Chica. For what it's worth, good luck."

With that, Esposito turned and walked away, not even bothering to wait for a reply.

"Hastings," Kate said into the comm, head down, her lip quivering, "Shore party... calling for extraction, I've had just about enough of this colony."

* * *

Upon return to the ship, Kate had barely had enough time to compose herself before being called back to the briefing room to be debriefed by the Illusive Man via telepresence.

"Good work on Horizon," Mason praised., "Hopefully Collectors will think twice before attacking another colony."

"It's not a victory," Kate shot back, unable to hide the bitterness in her tone, "we may have intercepted the Collectors, but they still escaped with half the colony's population."

"That's better than an _entire_ colony," Mason replied soberly, "and more than anyone has accomplished since the attacks began. The Collectors will be more careful now, but I think we can find another way to lure them in."

"You risked the lives of my friend and everyone on that colony" Kate seethed, not even trying to hide her anger, "just to lure the collectors there?"

"Yes," Mason replied, "and I had the colony's GARDIAN defense batteries targeting software sabotaged as well. The Collectors would have hit another colony regardless and with no way to predict which one you wouldn't have saved as many people as you did."

Kate glared at him. If looks could kill, he would have been a pile of ash in his chair.

"While we're on the subject of Lt. Esposito, can I assume you've put the past behind you?"

"None of your damn business," Kate retorted. "And keep your damned listening devices out of my fucking quarters."

"Okay then," Mason sighed, knowing not to tread too heavily on that topic, "I've forwarded an update on your last dossier. Make sure your team is strong and united, the fight is only just beginning.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** Thankfully we've made it through the hot, humid part of the summer and I can actually function normally. Hopefully things will be moving along better now.**_

 _ **In Memoriam:**_

 _ **Hans Ruedi "H.R." Giger (Feb. 5 1940 - May 12, 2014) A Swiss painter best known as part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for design work on the film Alien.**_

 _ **Toshiro Mifune (April 1, 1920 – Dec 24, 1997) B** **est known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–65) with Akira Kurosawa, such as The Seven Samurai, (on which The Magnificent Seven was based) and The Hidden Fortress (on which Star Wars was based). American audiences would recognize him as Lord Toranaga in the NBC TV miniseries Shōgun, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the feature film Midway. (George Lucas had originally offered him the roles of both Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi for the original Star Wars, but he turned them down)** _


	10. Rescue On Haestrom

**Chapter Ten  
Rescue on Haestrom**

* * *

 _In War, Victory.  
In Peace, Vigilance.  
In Death, Sacrifice._

Dragon Age: Origins Grey Warden Motto

* * *

" _General quarters. General quarters, all hands man your battle stations,"_ Jenny's smooth voice stated over the ship's comms, sounding almost incongruous along with the alert klaxon breaking the calm of the morning. _"Condition one is now in effect, Captain Beckett, Mr Castle report to the CIC,"_

Castle and Beckett had been halfway through their normal routine when the alert first sounded, and were pounding their way into the CIC by the third repeat of the announcement.

"Report," Kate commanded as she assumed command of the CIC.

"Batarian Var'Shan class frigate just dropped out of FTL fifty thousand kilometers off the port quarter and closing on an intercept vector," Hastings reported.

"Activate point defense grid," Kate commanded, "load forward torpedo bays, stand ready to put a shot across their bow."

"I'm getting a friend or foe acknowledgment from the frigate Captain," the young comm officer stated. "Transponder codes identify them as the Quarian Migrant Fleet Patrol vessel Cyanid. They have a member of the Admiralty Board aboard and are requesting permission to come alongside and lock on."

"Quarian IFF codes confirmed, Captain," Hastings reported from her station.

"Secure from general quarters," Kate ordered with a sigh of relief, the last thing she needed in her life was a run-in with the Batarians. "Stand down all weapons. Signal the Cyanid, permission granted. Tell them they are clear to come alongside, but our ship is not clean."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, the Batarian built frigate came alongside and locked on to the port side cargo lock. By the time the airlock began to cycle, Castle and Beckett were there to meet the quarian admiral.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain," Admiral Rael'Zorah requested, clearly displaying his knowledge of Alliance boarding protocol.

"Permission granted," Kate replied. "Welcome aboard the Normandy, Admiral,"

"Rael'Zorah," Admiral Zorah offered as he stepped through the airlock. "Thank you for receiving me on such short notice, Captain Beckett. I apologize if my sudden appearance gave you a shock."

"What can I do for you, Admiral?" Kate asked, noting his name for the first time.

"I find myself in dire need of your assistance, Captain," Admiral Zorah stated. "My daughter, Tali, volunteered to lead a high-risk survey mission into Geth Space, to the former colony of Haestrom."

"I see," Kate noted, prompting him to continue.

"Her ship is seventeen hours overdue to report in and I fear the worst," Admiral Zorah added. "I cannot order another Quarian ship into the Perseus Veil without being overruled by the other Admirals and accused of favoritism. But...Tali is my daughter... she's all I have left and I cannot just _"sit on my hands"_ is I believe the correct human term. Since her mother died, I... I have not always been the father she needed me to be, the father she deserved, but I still want what is best for her."

"I'll do what I can, Admiral," Kate promised.

"Thank you, Captain Beckett," Admiral Zorah stated before turning back toward the airlock, "I would appreciate it if you kept our meeting between us."

Admiral Rael'Zorah turned back to face Kate from the open airlock doorway straightened to attention as best he could given his quarian legs and raised his right hand just before the door hissed shut. "May you stand between your crew and harm as you travel amongst the stars."

As soon as the Admiral returned to his ship and the airlock began to cycle Kate turned to the intercom.

"CIC, this is the Captain -"

"CIC, Hastings," came the swift reply.

"Begin calculations for a combat FTL jump to the Dholen System." Kate commanded.

"Set course for _where_ Captain." Hastings replied incredulously, "I must be hearing things, but I could've swore you ordered us into Geth Space."

"You heard correctly, Hastings," Kate commanded. "Sound general quarters. Power up the IES system and stand ready to go to silent running as soon as we secure from FTL."

"So ordered, Captain."

" _General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations,"_ Jenny's smooth voice stated over the ship's comms as the alert klaxon began to wail once more and the ship's lighting shifted from standard illumination to red. _"Condition One is now in effect. Action stations FTL. Stand ready to secure all stations for silent running."_

By the time Jenny began to repeat herself, Castle and Beckett were on their way to the CIC. Within seconds of their arrival, the Normandy retracted her wings and jumped to FTL, leaving only the Cyanid and empty space behind.

* * *

Admiral Rael'Zorah stood on the cramped bridge of the Cyanid, his eyes drawn to the space Normandy had just departed before ordering their own FTL vector back to the fleet, hoping he had not waited too long to act. He had to return to Alarei, he had taken the only option left open to him for Tali's safe return. His current project would secure not only her future, but that of the entire Quarian race.

It wasn't the gift he knew she wanted, but a secure Migrant Fleet with a chance of retaking the home-world in her lifetime were the only gifts he knew how to give.

* * *

 **Four hours later  
**

 _From the mission briefing report provided by Admiral Rael'Zorah:_

Prior to the geth revolt three hundred years before, Haestrom had been a quarian research colony, established to study instability of Dholen, the system's star. As a scientific outpost of minimal strategic value, the colony had been ill-equipped to resist when the more sizable geth population turned on them and fell rather quickly under synthetic control. The synthetics had not maintained a permanent presence there for long, however, due to the star's increasing instability.

Inexplicably, the planet's single observatory continued to collect data after the geth had departed as if the colony had never changed hands, or been abandoned. A single burst transmission hardwired into the ancient observatory's communication system had drawn the Quarian Flotilla's attention. Tali's mission had been green lit after intercepted geth patrol and survey data had shown most of the former colony's infrastructure to be virtually intact, in spite of damage during the revolt and three centuries of abandonment.

As the UT47 Kodiak shuttle from Normandy began her descent Jenny briefed them on the situation.

"Captain, according to the data packet provided by Admiral Zorah, your former crew-mate, Tali'Zorah vas Neema is located somewhere in this set of ruins. My limited scans while under silent running, show considerable geth activity on the surface, though there is no sign of a patrol vessel in orbit. There is also an extreme environmental hazard: Solar output has overwhelmed Haestrom's protective magnetosphere. Exposure to direct sunlight will damage your armor's barriers as well as any unprotected electronics."

"Sauce for the goose, Jenny," Castle quipped. "The odds will be even."

"I guess that explains why the geth didn't maintain a permanent presence here," Kate added as the shuttle door swung up and she, Castle Jack and Grunt disembarked.

"So we fight from the shade," Grunt growled, "but no hiding!"

Kate rolled her eyes at Grunt's over-eager outburst, but said nothing. She'd chosen Grunt and Jack because in Haestrom's environment, engagements with the geth would need to be quick and dirty. For that she needed her two most aggressive fighters. Grunt followed her orders – after a fashion - and Jack more or less followed Castle's lead so she was certain the situation shouldn't get too far out of hand, or at least she hoped not.

Leaving those two on the ship with Hastings and Miranda in charge – given Jack's professed hatred for all things Cerberus and Grunt's aggressive tendencies - was a definite recipe for disaster at any rate. Letting the two of them off the leash (so to speak) to blow off some steam against the geth sounded like a good idea.

Kate and her group moved away from the landing zone as the heavily modified shuttle veered up and away, thankfully only passing through one short zone of direct sunlight on their way to the main gate of the long abandoned Quarian colony. As they approached, the door to the gate house could be seen sliding open and shut on an obstruction, which upon closer examination was revealed to be the leg of a bipedal geth trooper, the rest of whom was sprawled inside the door.

Castle kicked the dead geth aside then moved into the guardhouse, his head on a swivel as his eyes swept the room, to reveal four other geth trooper class platforms sprawled near the body of a dead Quarian Marine sitting slumped on the floor in the far corner. Kate recognized him as as soon as she followed Castle inside. It was Prazza, whom she had last seen on Freedom's Progress.

" _Emergency log entry,"_ a recording began as they gathered around, one clearly made as he lay there dying from his wounds. _"The geth are here. I... sent my squad ahead… stayed to buy... the others time. Anyone who gets this… find Tali'Zorah. She and that data are… all that matters. Keelah Se'lai."_

When the log entry began to repeat, Kate reached down to turn it off and retrieve his tags and personal effects, which were few before she straightened up and she and Castle snapped to attention.

"Semper Fi, Prazza," Kate whispered as she and Castle saluted.

"Keelah Se'lai," Castle whispered out of respect. It was all they could do for him. The living had to come before the dead. The only way to truly honor his sacrifice would be to finish the mission he had given his last full measure of devotion for.

"There goes the element of surprise," Jack quipped sarcastically as she keyed the controls for the main gate, which groaned open on its long neglected bearings with a shriek of grinding metal.

They had barely made it into the outer courtyard of the long abandoned colony before encountering the geth. Fortunately it was only a relatively small patrol easily swept aside. They quickly discovered that there was little cover from the relentless solar activity, though the geth seemed equally susceptible to its detrimental effects.

Kate quickly determined that the former Quarian inhabitants had prepared for this eventuality, however once they ducked into one of the colony buildings. Not only were they remarkably hardened against solar activity, but many of the buildings in the complex appeared to be interconnected by underground tunnels which offered them a safer path to move across the open spaces and into the colony proper. It was equally apparent that the geth were also aware of this fact, by the bodies of dead Quarian scientists and Marines they found along the way.

The tunnel they'd entered had been rendered impassable by collapsed debris after ten meters. After a quick scan of the rubble blocking their path, Castle determined the cave-in had not only been recent, but deliberate. Given the geth body parts buried in the rubble, the Quarian Marines had likely blown the tunnel to cover the line of their retreat. Regardless, it forced them back to the surface, just like it had the geth, where they'd had to fight through two more geth patrols to drive deeper into the facility.

* * *

Fifteen meters into another set of outbuildings they found the remains of what had once been a quarian lookout post. As they carefully drew nearer, they began to hear comm chatter coming from one of the dead quarians' omni-tools.

" _Break. Break. Break. Op One this is Reegar, do you copy? Geth sent a drop-ship to hit Op Two. Asset secure, but we need backup. Requesting fire support! Op One this is Reegar, respond!"_

Kate stepped into audio range of the dead quarian's radio receiver and knelt close enough to be heard without shouting.

"This is Captain Kate Beckett, ISV Normandy," she stated into the pickup, "I'm afraid there's no survivors here."

"Damn," the gruff voice on the other end replied, "Wait… Beckett? The Spectre Zorah worked with? Don't know what brought you all the way out here, but right now any organic would be a welcome sight. Patch your comms into channel six-one-seven Theta."

Kate stood back up and adjusted the comm band on her omni-tool and nodded for the others to do the same, then clicked her mic to encourage Reegar to continue.

"We're here on a priority mission for the Migrant Fleet. High risk. We found what we came for, but a geth patrol ship found us. Our ship knocked it out, but not before they landed troops. We're outnumbered and pinned down. Can't get to our ship, can't transmit our data through the solar radiation."

"What's your status, Reegar?" Kate asked.

"We came in light," Reegar replied, "dozen Marines, plus the science team. We're down to half strength now, made the synthetic bastards pay for it though. I left Tali'Zorah and what's left of her science team at a secure shelter near the observatory then doubled back with a fire team to hold a choke point. Getting her and that data off planet safely is our top priority. If you can extract her, my Marines will keep em off you."

"You have confirmation she's still alive," Kate asked, "the geth haven't reached her?"

"Affirmative, ma'am," Reegar replied. "Every Marine on this worthless rock is sworn to protect Tali'Zorah. As long as even one of us is sucking air from our suit scrubbers, she'll be safe."

"Are all of you willing to throw your lives away for research data?" Kate asked.

"Negative, ma'am," Reegar responded, sounding almost offended at the question. Castle could almost picture the quarian puffing his chest out on the other end of the line. "I'll give my life for the Migrant Fleet. All the difference in the galaxy. I'm no tech expert, ma'am, I'm a Marine. My orders are to protect Tali'Zorah and that data _in that order_. If you can get her out safe, I've done my job. Take it slow and easy, though, direct sunlight fries your shields all to hell. Lost two of the science team to suit damage because of it."

"Hold your position," Kate commanded, "we can be there in a few minutes to hit their back ranks."

"Shit!" Reegar shouted, the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard over the comms, "Watch your ass! Drop ship rolling in!"

Kate urged the others forward and they slipped out of the quarian post, she knew they had to reach the Marine position before it became similarly overrun if she wanted any chance of getting Tali out alive.

* * *

Though the drop-ship had scattered or killed the quarians guarding the entrance to the secure shelter, Kate and her squad were able to punch through the geth troopers it had disgorged, only to find the former quarian outpost a charnal house of bodies. Geth and the descendants of their creators were scattered about the room, united in death. One of the the synthetics crawled across the floor toward them, but Castle drew his shotgun and shot it in the head.

"So this is Quarian architecture," Jack quipped sarcastically as she looked around, "from before they got their asses kicked."

"Why do we care?" Grunt rumbled in reply. "Anyone who chooses to come here _should_ be on their own."

Castle keyed one of the newer looking terminals left behind by the science team looking for Intel, finding a voice log entry from Tali instead.

" _Our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads. Dholen must not have been this unstable back then. So much space, walls of stone, it's amazing to see what we were once capable of building. I wish Ann could see it."_

"Tali'Zorah to base camp, come in base camp," Tali's voice crackled over the comm as a hologram of her appeared on a panel across the room, prompting Castle to turn off the log entry. "Is anyone there?"

"Tali, this is Beckett," Kate replied after keying into the panel, "I'm sorry, but the other quarians here are dead. If anyone survived the geth assault, they must have been forced to fall back."

"We knew this mission was high risk. Damn it," Tali began, "wait… Beckett? What are you doing in the middle of geth space?"

"I have a mission to recruit you for, remember?" Kate lied, keeping Tali's father out of it as he'd requested. "It's dangerous, but I need people I can trust and you don't seem averse to high-risk operations these days."

"Yeah," Tali replied sarcastically, "I guess serving under you must have rubbed off on me. But perhaps we could discuss _your_ mission _after_ the gunfire dies down. Kal'Reegar's Marines got me into the observatory. From your location, it's through the door next to the comm station, down the stairs to the end of the tunnel, then across the field. I accessed the archived data we came for and I'm safe enough for now, but there's a lot of geth outside."

"What is this research you came for, anyway?" Castle quipped, unable to resist.

"It's about this world's star." Tali replied. "It's aging exponentially faster than it should be. I can talk more about it once there are fewer geth shooting at us."

"Would it help if I called in an orbital strike?" Kate asked.

"Doubtful," Tali replied, "These buildings are centuries old. If you call in heavy fire, this whole place could collapse on us."

"Looks like somebody sealed the door after you left and shot out the console," Kate noted after Castle tried the door and nothing happened. "Can you do something on your end?"

"Let me see," Tali replied, her hands dipping below the pickup for the holographic projector. "Yes, I can do it… there, it should be unlocked now."

This time when Castle tried the door, it slid into the floor to reveal a ramp down into the tunnel system.

"Be careful, Captain," Tali added before cutting the comm, "and please do what you can to keep Reegar alive."

* * *

After a brief, tension-filled approach through the tunnel, followed by a steep set of stairs leading back to the surface, they ended up in another ancient observation area with a set of closed shutters that apparently overlooked the plaza it shared with the observatory.

At Kate's unvoiced urging, Castle moved to the central console to open the shutters, which obediently, groaned upward to allow an unobstructed view of the plaza… and the massive form of a geth colossus class armature unit towering over it.

"Son of a…" Jack began, but Castle shoved her sprawling to the floor before she could complete the thought as the massive four legged tank turned its head toward them and opened fire with its chin mounted MAC cannon sending them all scrambling for cover in the doorway leading toward the plaza.

" _This_ is why I follow you, Beckett," Grunt rumbled, unable to keep the _"kid in a candy store"_ glee out of his voice. "BIG THINGS!"

They managed to get out the door with little more than scrapes and bruises, before turning the corner into a sheltered gallery outside.

"Over here," a quarian male in blood red battle armor and helmet shouted before turning to provide covering fire for their movement with a rocket launcher, "get to cover!"

Once they were gathered with him in his sheltered position, the quarian ducked down with them.

"Master Sergeant Kal'Reegar, Migrant Fleet Marines," he said. "We spoke over the comms before that damned drop-ship jumped us. Still got no idea why you're out here, but this ain't the fucking time to be gorram picky. The geth killed the rest of my squad and they're trying to get at Zorah in the observatory. Guess they want that data as bad as we do. Best I've been able to do till you got here was draw their fire."

"Is Tali secure in there, Sergeant?" Kate asked crisply.

"The observatory is more heavily reinforced than the rest of the complex," Reegar replied. "The geth will need time to break in there, but it's hard to hack a door when a Marine is shooting rockets at you."

There was no mistaking the pride Kal'Reegar had in that sentiment. Castle had seen such from nearly every Alliance Marine lifer he'd ever met. _'Some things cross species rather well, apparently.'_ He thought to himself.

"The geth are near platoon strength, but the colossus is the frosting on this shit-show. It's got a repair protocol when it takes damage. Huddles up and fixes itself and I can't get a clear shot when it hunkers down like that. I tried moving in closer but one of the synthetic bastards supporting it punched a shot clean through my suit."

For the first time, Kate noticed that Reegar was favoring his left side.

"How bad is it?" Castle asked, seeming to read Kate's mind.

"The wound itself isn't too bad," Reegar replied. "Combat seals clamped down to stop the bleeding and isolate contamination and I'm swimming in antibiotics. Those geth bastards might get me, but I'm not gonna die from an infection in the middle of a battle, that's just insulting."

"We need to get to Tali," Kate said. "Any ideas?"

"Just one," Reegar offered. "Standard procedure with armature class units is to whittle em down, kill em with bug bites, but its goram repair protocol blows that tactic all to hell. Whatever we do has to scrap that bastard... _fast_. I ain't moving so well, but I can still pull a trigger, and the sun hasn't fried this baby yet. I can keep that thing busy while you move in closer, maybe drop its shields. With any luck, you can get in close enough to finish it off."

"Don't take any unnecessary risks, Reegar," Kate commanded, "I need you up here covering our asses while we advance. You're no good to me dead, Marine, understand?"

"Understood, Ma'am, five by five," Reegar replied. "Let's go shoot some geth. Keelah Se'lai!"

* * *

The fight that followed as Beckett and her squad moved into the plaza was short and brutal. Castle and Jack burst ahead to hold the geth and provide covering fire as first Grunt, then Beckett moved up. The Colossus occasionally popped up to its full height to fire on them only to be forced back into cover by concentrated fire from Reegar's rocket launcher. Grunt seemed almost gleefully violent as he charged at the geth, chuckling every time he center-punched or decapitated one with his shotgun.

When they cut through a group of geth platforms holding an elevated walkway, finding themselves in a perfect firing position above and behind the colossus, Grunt put away his shotgun and picked up a discarded geth grenade launcher. With a low, rumbling chuckle - that would have had Kate concerned for his sanity were he human - Grunt opened fire on the huddled up colossus, pumping an entire magazine of grenades into it until it exploded, destroying the geth surrounding it in a series of secondary explosions.

Grunt looked over at Kate grinning wildly, she was almost certain if he'd been a dog his tail would be wagging. "Got anything to eat?"

Once they had swept the area and determined there were no geth stragglers to deal with, Kate nodded and Rick sent a query via his omni-tool. For a few tense moments there was no answer, not even from the observatory's automated systems. Kate was about to have him run a bypass on the door when Tali's voice finally crackled over the static laden comms.

"Wait a moment, I had to encrypt the door panel protocols to keep the geth from getting in. There you go, the door should open now."

The door groaned loudly as it slid into the floor to admit Kate and Rick. No sooner had they made it up the ramp into the main atrium, they could see Tali working with a portable haptic display. One hand raised momentarily to cut off their greeting before she went back to the task at hand.

"Just a second, I need to finish this download," she explained as her delicate three fingered hands danced over the haptic display. "These computers are antiquated and running on a centuries-old operating system."

As soon as she finished her task, she turned toward them, her shoulders slumped, even through her exo-suit she looked tired and used up.

"Thank you for saving me Captain," she said with a defeated sigh. "This whole mission was a disaster. I wish I'd joined you back on Freedom's Progress, but I couldn't let anyone else take my place on something this risky."

"A lot of quarians lost their lives here," Kate asked, "was it worth it?"

"I don't know," Tali sighed, her voice sounding hollow. "It wasn't my call. The Admiralty Board believed the data here to be worth sacrificing our lives for. I have to believe that they didn't do so lightly."

"I didn't ask what some _admiral_ thought," Kate replied more sharply than she'd intended, "I asked what _you_ think."

"A lot of people died here," Tali shot back, her spine straightening in angry defiance. "Some of them were my friends, all of them were damned good at their jobs. That damned data better be frelling worth it. The price we paid for it was too damned high!"

"What did you find?" Castle interceded.

"Haestrom's sun is destabilizing at an accelerated rate," Tali replied, her anger cooling slightly. "Back when this was a quarian colony it was much less pronounced. The effect we're seeing here now is similar to older stars blowing off mass to enter the red giant phase, but Dholen is far too young a star for this to be natural. Hopefully when the data's analyzed we'll know more."

"I'm glad I could help," Kate offered, her voice softening. "After you deliver the data, I could use your help on the Normandy. I need an experienced hand running the engine room… somebody I can trust."

"I promised to see this mission through," Tali replied darkly, "and I kept my word. I can leave with you and send the data back to the fleet. If the Admirals have a problem with it, they can all go straight to fucking hell. I just watched my entire team die."

"Maybe not your whole team, ma'am," Kal'Reegar groaned, leaning heavily on the door frame at the entrance.

"Reegar!" Tali exclaimed, her voice brightening a little upon seeing him, "You made it!"

"Your old captain is as good as you said," Reegar replied. "Damned colossus never stood a chance."

"The Normandy can evac you back to the fleet if needed," Kate offered.

"Our ship is still space-worthy and the command crew is mostly in one piece," Reegar replied, "Long as we bug out before the geth start to wonder where their patrol went, we'll be fine."

"I'm not coming with you," Tali stated, handing an OSD to Reegar, "I'll be joining Captain Beckett on the Normandy."

"I'll pass the data on to the Admiralty Board," Reegar stated. "Let them know of your change in status. Keelah Se'lai, ma'am."

Reegar straightened up as much as his injured side would allow and saluted Tali before limping out of the observatory.

* * *

 **Normandy briefing room  
A short time later**

Having been summoned to the briefing room to add Tali to the Normandy crew roster and vet her security clearance, Vikram had been geeking out a little ever since she had entered the room with Captain Beckett. Tali herself though seemed to have little enthusiasm for having to share a room with him, given the Cerberus patch clearly displayed on his uniform jacket.

"I was able to dig up footage of you in action, Miss Zorah," he offered with great enthusiasm. "I look forward to working with you. Though you weren't included with the list of dossiers from the Illusive Man, your engineering expertise will definitely benefit our mission."

"I don't know who you are," Tali responded harshly, her dislike for all things Cerberus clear as day even through the purple opaque visor of her helmet, "but Cerberus threatened the security of the Migrant Fleet. So, don't expect me to make nice."

"You don't have to like them, Tali," Castle soothed, though it was clear he wasn't wild about the idea of working with them either, "but like it or not, we're on the same side this time."

"I assumed the two of you were undercover, Captain," Tali said to Beckett, with a nod to Castle so he wouldn't think she was snubbing him. "Maybe even planning to take them down from the inside. If that's the case, I'll lend you a grenade. Otherwise, I'm here for you, not for them."

"That's all I can ask, Tali," Kate reassured. She wanted another person on board she knew could be trusted to have her back. "Once we're done here, I'll need you to take charge in engineering. Donelly and Daniels are very competent, but neither has your qualifications."

"I'll have you set up with the necessary clearance and authorization codes for Normandy's systems in no time," Vikram interrupted, drawing another angry glance from Tali.

"Please do," Tali replied before turning toward the door, the artificial sweetness in her tone laced with sarcasm, "I can't take over as Chief Engineer if I don't know how the ship works."

"Don't forget to introduce yourself to Jenny," Vikram offered as a parting shot, "Normandy's artificial intelligence."

Tali turned back toward him, and even through the face-plate, Castle and Beckett could see the death glare Tali levelled at him. Had looks the power to kill, it was clear that Vikram would be a pile of dust on the deck-plates. Drawing him up short, but instead of dragging the matter out, she turned on her heel and stalked out the door.

"Captain Beckett, CIC," Hastings called out over the ship's intercom, "Text only message for you from the Quarian Flotilla."

"Understood, Hastings," Kate replied, "I'll read it in my quarters."

Kate levelled a harsh look of her own at Vikram before she and Castle departed. Shortly thereafter they were in their quarters as she brought the letter up on a data pad.

* * *

 _From: Quarian Migrant Fleet Admiralty Board_

 _To: Captain Kate Beckett, ISV Normandy._

 _Re: Transfer request_

 _Tali'Zorah vas Neema's request for temporary transfer to your command has been granted. Though additional duties for the Migrant Fleet may still be required of her in the interim, she has been granted extended leeway to determine when her duties to you and your ship have been completed._

 _The Migrant Fleet Admiralty Board trusts that you shall treat her with the utmost respect due to an honored Officer of the Migrant Fleet. Should any harm come to her due to negligence on your part, this board shall take severe and appropriate punitive action._

 _Signed,_

 _Admiral Rael'Zorah  
Chairman, Migrant Fleet Admiralty Board._

* * *

"Wow," Castle commented along with a low whistle, "I may have to borrow some of this the next time I meet one of Alexis' boyfriends."

"I hope she's settling in all right," Kate replied, her tone laced with worry, "she got run through the wringer down there, even before we showed up."

"Yeah, I know," Castle replied, "that was kinda rough. I've been where she is but I can only imagine what she's going through. Hopefully, Ann can help her find some measure of peace."

"It'll just take time," Kate agreed, one of them would have to check in on her once she'd settled into her duties after she'd had some time to decompress first. Preferably before they made their next port of call on Illium.

According to Jenny, the subject of their last dossier had been recently tracked to the distant Asari colony, and hadn't yet departed. Given what little background information The Illusive Man had provided, he seemed like a real piece of work.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** Only one more team member to go, we've kinda hit the midway point here. Though I'm planning a diversion or two to lighten things up a bit.**_


	11. Prayers For The Wicked

**Chapter Eleven  
Prayers For The Wicked  
**

* * *

" _Rock on, gold dust woman  
Take your silver spoon and dig your grave_ _"  
_ Fleetwood Mac "Gold Dust Woman"

* * *

Tali sat in the tiny Chief Engineer's office just off Normandy's Engine room, she had forsaken the desk terminal provided for her use and was instead bent over a portable Quarian data tablet she had brought with her. As often as her new duties as Normandy's Chief Engineer allowed, she'd been composing letters to the families of her fallen team, especially the Marines who'd held their ground against overwhelming numbers and firepower to buy her time to get the data for which they'd been sent. Prazza's had been the hardest as she'd worked with him the most often, but the ones she'd never met before were no less heartbreaking. Reegar had told her in his last vidcom message that she didn't have to, that they were _his_ Marines and he'd take care of it, but she'd insisted. As mission commander, she felt she owed it to them.

 _"Dear Sen and Hesesh'Jorin, I am"_ She'd begun to write, but it felt wrong so she deleted it with a swipe of a slender finger.

 _"To the parents of Myrr'Jorin vas"_ But that felt wrong too.

" _My name is Tali'Zorah vas Neema,"_ she typed instead, which felt more personal and less like a form letter. " _I led the unit where your son was killed on Haestrom."_

"No, no, no, that's not right," she muttered, not realizing she'd said it out loud.

 _"led the mission on Haestrom where your son died."_ But that didn't feel right either. _"mission on Haestrom where Myrr'Jorin died."_

Tali saved her progress, then began to write the body of the letter.

 _"I didn't know Myrr well, but he seemed like a good soldier and a brave young"  
_ She didn't like that, it felt trite, so she deleted that and tried again.

 _"I didn't get the chance to know Myrr very well, but,"_ That felt wrong too, so she deleted that as well.

It took time, tears and many more changes. She didn't know how Marine lifers like Reegar did this. She'd wanted to ask Castle for help - he was so much better at writing than she was - but decided it was too deeply personal. In fits and starts, she slowly, haltingly found the words, though she knew she would have to flush out her helmet's air filters the next time she did suit maintenance in sick bay.

 _My name is Tali'Zorah vas Neema._  
 _I led the mission to Haestrom on which Tech Specialist Second Class Myrr'Jorin vas Tonbay was killed._

 _Though I only served with Myrr for a short time, I was impressed by his unwavering commitment to both the Migrant Fleet and his fellow Marines. His dedication to duty exemplified the spirit of the Migrant Fleet Marine Corps. A human I once worked with called it 'Fidelis ad Mortem' which in their Latin dialect means 'faithful unto death'. He did not think his sacrifice to be a vain or foolish one, and I can only hope to one day be worthy of the life he sacrificed for mine. I will honor his memory through my own service for the rest of my life._

 _Keelah Se'lai_

 _Tali'Zorah vas Neema_  
 _Migrant Fleet Operations_

Tali addressed the letter to his parents and added that message to the fifteen others in her outgoing mail queue, which she planned to transmit once she had access to a more secure extranet server. The last thing she wanted was some Cerberus lackey like Vikram Singh poring over them. They were meant to be read only by the families to whom they were addressed and were none of the Illusive Man's business.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned to find Castle standing in the doorway. His expression, one of somber reflection.

"Losing people never gets any easier, Tali," he stated without preamble, not needing to see the screen on her portable device to know what she'd been agonizing over. "Anybody who tells you different has no business leading people into combat."

"Did you meet any of their families?" Tali asked. "The ones you lost on Eden Prime?"

"A few," Castle replied, "I went to Samesh Bhatia's restaurant, the one he and Nirali had wanted to open when she mustered out. He was gracious, and kind to Alexis, but many of them didn't want to see me. I couldn't blame them. I'm alive and the people they loved aren't."

They were both quiet for several moments, neither of them sure what to say, until Castle finally broke the silence.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

"We haven't had time to talk the last few days, have we?" Tali noted sadly, "I can't believe so many people died… all for data about stars blowing up. I hope the Admiralty Board got something useful out of it."

"Hear anything about Kal'Reegar?" Castle asked. "Did he make it back all right?"

"He sent me a message when he got back to the fleet," Tali replied. "It looks like he'll make a full recovery. Any time one of us gets a suit puncture it's a matter of luck, Reegar got out with little more than a minor infection. I'm grateful to both you and Captain Beckett for getting him out alive."

"And the data you sent?" Castle asked, scrambling for topics of conversation.

"It'll take time for our scientists to analyze it," Tali replied. "I'm unlikely to hear anything for a while, especially over an unsecured channel."

"How are you settling in?" Castle tried again.

"I like the quiet," Tali noted, "I miss the old faces though. XO Pressly, Chief Engineer Adams, all of them. A couple of the Cerberus people gave me dirty looks, but Ann shut them down hard. She wants to do a girls' movie night later. It's good to see her again."

Tali stopped for a moment to look around conspiratorially and adjusted a few controls on her omni-tool.

"It doesn't feel right having Cerberus in charge of this ship," she whispered after checking the readings. "Are you and Captain Beckett sure that working with them is the right thing to do?"

"Kate told me about Freedom's progress and the incident with Vikram when you first came aboard," Castle stated. "What happened between Cerberus and your people?"

"Cerberus operatives attacked one of our ships," Tali replied darkly. "The Idenna. I don't know all of the details, but apparently they were trying to either capture or kill a young human biotic who was seeking asylum with the fleet. The Idenna only took moderate damage but there were multiple casualties, some of them children. With that act, Cerberus made an enemy of the Quarian people."

"Does it look like Cerberus is pulling Kate's strings?" Castle replied. "We aren't working for them, we need their resources, that's all. She calls the shots on this ship."

"So _she_ ordered the listening devices and tracking beacons scattered all over the ship?" Tali asked sarcastically. "Don't worry, I've either removed or bypassed the ones here in engineering. I even wrote a few subroutines to keep the fancy AI they put aboard from overriding your command codes. I know the Citadel and the Alliance didn't believe either of you about the Reapers or the Collectors, but please be careful."

"I fully expect them to turn on us once this mission is over," Castle replied. "We'll need to be ready when that happens."

"When the time comes, just say the word," Tali asserted, "but for now I have to get back to the engine room. Gabby and Ken should be just about done with the level one diagnostic I've had them working on."

"Speaking of," Castle began. "Having any trouble acclimating to the new Normandy's upgrades?"

"Please, Castle," Tali scoffed, "I'm a quarian engineer. Give me a chunk of scrap metal, a circuit board and some eezo and I'll have it doing precision jumps. I was more concerned about the Cerberus engineers respecting my authority, but Ken and Gabby are very polite and they really know what they're doing."

"How's she running?" Castle asked, switching gears to his duties as Kate's unofficial executive officer.

"Say what you want about Cerberus," Tali replied grudgingly, "but they know how to build ships. The updated Normandy design runs even better than her namesake. I'm looking at possible updates to her cyclonic barriers and a few capacitor tweaks, but first I need to deal with the mess Garrus made in the weapons bay. I should really get back to it. Thanks for stopping by."

"Carry on, Chief," Castle stated, "I'll check in on you later."

* * *

 **A few days later**

It took several days for the Normandy to transit out of Geth space and back into the Terminus Systems. First and foremost, they needed to discharge the static buildup in the drive core and as well as find a safe anchorage where they could vent the heat sinks. The entire crew was on edge until they reached the border of the Terminus, after which everyone seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The crew rotations relaxed slightly until they reached the Asari Border colony of Illium. Though there was some grumbling that there would be no shore leave rotation, the suborbital transition and docking at Nos Astra spaceport was without incident.

No sooner had the main airlock opened to permit Castle, Beckett, Garrus and Miranda than they were met by an approaching Asari in formal attire flanked by two Loki mechs bearing full arms. Beckett bristled momentarily, but Castle waved her off.

"Welcome to Nos Astra, Captain Beckett," the asari greeted cheerfully. "The Illium Board of Tourism has instructed me to wave all docking and administrative fees for your visit. My name is Careena, I have been assigned as your concierge for the duration of your stay. If you require any information about shopping, entertainment or local attractions it would be my pleasure to assist you."

"That's a lot of firepower for a friendly welcome," Kate remarked, nodding at the mechs. "Expecting trouble?"

"Illium is the gateway to the Terminus Systems, Captain," Careena replied without missing a beat as she dismissed the mechs., "That element of risk requires increased security. Liara T'Soni personally vouched for your conduct and paid all of the spaceport fees you would normally incur. She also asked that I direct you to visit her office on the main trading floor at your earliest convenience. She is very interested in speaking with you."

Though Miranda shot Kate a warning glance, Kate ignored it to focus solely on the expression on Castle's face. It was clear that he knew something she didn't. Whatever it was, Miranda clearly didn't know either and she wasn't certain which of them he was intent on keeping it from.

"What does Liara do here?" Kate asked diplomatically, though the look she shot at Castle let him know they would definitely be talking later.

"Liara T'Soni is one of Nos Astra's most respected information brokers." Careens replied. "Nos Astra is based upon trade with the Terminus Systems, as such information is a valuable commodity and Dr. T'Soni has done quite well. Feel free to contact me at any time via omni-tool. Have a pleasant day."

"I have business of my own to take care of, Captain," Miranda stated coolly, her eyes shifting nervously, as if afraid she was being watched. "I'll catch up with you later."

Miranda was gone before either of them could ask any questions, leaving Castle, Beckett and Garrus alone in the docking port.

" _Captain_ ," Jenny stated, " _my data mining indicates Thane Krios, the assassin on your dossier last accessed the extranet from kiosk three twenty seven alpha on the main trading floor three days ago to access information on an Asari businesswoman named Nassana Dantius."_

"All right, let's go," Kate stated, still not happy that Castle was holding out on her. She was determined that before they left Illium, she was going to find out what he was hiding.

* * *

After synching their omnitools to local time, Kate accessed a map of the trading floor and they set out. It took less time than they thought before they reached the staircase to Liara's office, where they were met by an asari receptionist.

"Ah, Captain Beckett, Commander Castle, and you must be Garrus Vakarian" she greeted as she rose from her seat." Welcome. Dr. T'Soni will be out to greet you herself shortly, but she is on a business call. I am Nyxeris, her personal assistant."

"What's Liara's reputation here on Illium?" Kate asked cautiously, though The Illusive Man had tied Liara to the Shadow Broker she wasn't certain she believed that.

"Dr. T'Soni is greatly respected here," Nyxeris replied. "In a few short years, she has amassed a sizeable network of connections. She could have even more political power than she currently wields if she weren't so focused on her personal goals. But I believe you should hear that from her and not from me."

"Is it okay if we wait inside?" Castle asked nervously, clearly uncomfortable about something.

"Certainly, Commander," Nyxeris replied as she pressed a key on her terminal which opened the outer door to a well appointed reception area.

As they grew nearer to Liara's open plan office, it was clear she was having a heated conversation with the holographic representation of a client.

"Have you faced an Asari commando unit before?" Liara threatened darkly, sounding very much like her mother had once upon a time. "Few humans have."

The holo-projected image of a human businessman gulped visibly, his skin becoming pale.

"I'll make it simple," Liara hissed in a threatening tone Kate had not known the young asari possessed. "Either you pay me the agreed upon rate for the data I provided, or I flay you alive… with my mind."

With that, she cut the line abruptly, then nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned around and found then watching.

"Castle? Beckett?" she nearly shrieked. "Nyxeris, hold my calls!"

Nyxeris bowed respectfully then turned and made her exit back to her desk.

"Captain Beckett," Liara practically beamed as she greeted them, "my sources said you were alive, but I never… it is good to see you!"

"You're threatening to flay people alive now?" Kate snarked in reply.

"Oh… that," Liara stated, her skin flushing a slightly darker shade of blue. "That was just a client who was unhappy with the information I provided. He'll pay, they always do. After the Normandy was destroyed, I came here and set up a respectable business as an information broker. It's paid the bills for the last two years anyway. Even Castle has made use of my services. Now you're back together, gunning for the Collectors with Cerberus."

"That's not exactly public knowledge," Kate replied, shooting another look at Castle.

"Neither is the fact that you are alive," Liara replied, not missing the exchange of looks between Castle and Beckett. "Information is my business now and business is good. If you require help finding someone, I would be happy to assist."

"You know anything about Thane Krios?" Castle asked, once again all business. "Our information dead ends on the trading floor three days ago."

"The Drell assassin?" Liara began. "Yes, I can confirm that he arrived three days ago. Data extrapolated from my sources leads me to believe he is targeting a corporate executive named Nassana Dantius, though I cannot find any trace of his client. Shortly after he arrived, he paid a visit to a disgruntled former Dantius security consultant named Seryna who now works as a clerk for the Illium Trade Bureau. Her cubicle is located two floors down from here on the cargo transfer level. She might be able to provide you with Krios' current location."

"All that was just off the top of your head?" Kate asked.

"I am a very good information broker, Captain," Liara explained. "The world of intrigue is not terribly different from archaeology, except that the bodies still smell."

"Thanks for the help, Liara," Kate said, still not sure about her motivations, considering the questioning looks the asari had been giving Castle the whole time. There was definitely a secret between them, given his uncomfortable body language.

"Why don't you come with us?" Kate asked. "It could be just like old times."

"As much as I would like that," Liara rebuffed politely, "I have commitments here that I cannot extricate myself from. Not even for you."

"I can respect that," Kate replied, though in truth she had only asked to get a reaction from Castle.

"Let me know if you require any more information, however," Liara offered, "I will do anything I can to help."

* * *

As Kate, Rick and Garrus departed from Liara's office, Kate felt she had waited just about long enough.

"Hey, Garrus, could you give me and my husband a minute?" she asked sharply. Garrus nodded, and moved further down the trading floor to "window shop" at some of the kiosks.

"Okay, Castle," she hissed in an irritated stage whisper, "out with it."

Castle looked back and forth across the trading floor nervously, fiddled with his omnitool then turned back to her.

"I'm assuming the Illusive Man gave you a rundown on Liara for the past two years?" Castle asked.

"Yeah," Kate replied with a nod. "He said she was connected with the Shadow Broker and couldn't be trusted."

"That's not… entirely… accurate." Castle noted cryptically.

"How so?" Kate asked.

"She doesn't work for the Shadow Broker," he replied. "I can definitely vouch for that."

"But?" Kate asked, "I'm kind of sensing a "but" there."

"She… well," Castle continued nervously then whispered, "she kinda _is_ the Shadow Broker now."

Castle could not have shocked her more had he sprouted two more eyes and began spouting Batarian poetry.

"Not long after I started working for Montgomery on the Citadel, she called me in a panic… well, for her anyway. I still don't know how she'd done it but she'd apparently crossed the previous Broker somehow and needed my help. The Broker had abducted a friend of hers to draw her out and she needed backup she could trust to mount a rescue mission. After a violent encounter with a rogue Spectre who'd stolen the data she'd collected, we hit the Shadow Broker's hideout deep in the Systems. Next thing I knew after we kicked his ass, she'd suddenly set herself up as the Broker. I'm not certain even she knows how she did it either. She's been going through his extensive information archives to find clues about the Reapers ever since. In the last year and a half she's led me to three Prothean sites nobody else knew about. I was getting close to having enough data to convince the council the reapers were real before… well… you."

"I'm assuming there's a good reason you hadn't shared this information with me sooner?" Kate asked, her arms crossed and her foot tapping.

"You _are_ aware of the listening devices all over the Normandy?" Castle replied. "Jenny transfers everything that passes through Normandy's data banks to the Illusive Man. Nobody knows she's the Broker now and for her safety it's best that it stays that way. Whispers that she might be a Broker Agent are the only thing keeping her safe _and_ we have reliable intel to verify what the Illusive Man gives us. We may need all the help we can get when things inevitably go south."

Though Kate didn't like that he'd been keeping secrets from her, she couldn't dispute his reasoning.

* * *

 **A short time later**

When Kate, Rick and Garrus arrived at the cargo transfer level of, it was clear that the two asari on duty were not assigned to priority work. In fact they seemed almost forgotten down in this less populous section of the main tower of the spaceport. From the look on either of their faces, though they seemed to like it that way.

"Which one of you is Seryna?" Kate asked as she drew closer to the two cubicles.

"Who wants to know?" the one on the left asked cautiously, as if she'd been expecting three armed people to come calling.

"Captain Kate Beckett, Citadel Special Tactics and Recon," Kate stated almost formally. This us my associate Richard Castle, "Liara T'Soni told me you might have information about a Drell named Thane Krios."

"Tana, cover for me," Seryna said to her coworker after breathing what seemed like a sigh of relief, then looked back at them and nodded toward a corner near the windows overlooking the Nos Astra city-scape. "Over here."

"Yeah, I know who and what Krios is," she said without further prompting, "I might have passed him some information, but I didn't hire him. What do you want to know?"

"What information did you give him?" Kate asked like she would have questioned a potential witness/suspect when she'd been a detective.

"I used to run security for Dantius Towers," she began "back when it was just the one tower. When I found out she was killing people to cover her dirty little secrets – she'd even tricked an Alliance Commander into killing her own sister a few years back – and confronted her about it, she fired me on the spot. Her loss, I might have been good enough to stop Krios, but it's her funeral."

"If you worked there, you must have some idea what his opposition will be," Castle noted.

"Eclipse mercs," Seryna replied. "High tech killers. They're undisciplined, but very well equipped. Mechs, assault drones, the whole bit and they don't care who they kill as long as they get paid. Krios has quite the reception waiting for him. He didn't seem worried about that when I told him though."

"Why does her name sound so familiar?" Castle asked as much to himself as Seryna.

"She represented Illium on the Citadel a few years ago, before the geth attack," Seryna replied, "She has even more power in Nos Astra. She uses her political clout here to keep her business associates in check and her enemies dead."

If he's going after Dantius, where is he heading?" Kate asked.

"The Dantius Towers," Seryna replied, pointing out the window to a pair of high rise towers off in the distance connected by a bridge, one of them clearly still under construction. "Penthouse level of Tower One."

While Kate looked out at the towers, digesting that information, Seryna continued.

"Tower two is still under construction, it was barely more than the foundation when I was fired and the security system likely won't be installed there for weeks. If Krios is smart, he'll gain entry from there."

"I doubt Nassana is just going to let us in if we knock," Castle remarked.

"Nassana Dantius is as smart as she is paranoid," Seryna pointed out. "Nobody's getting in there without a fight. Much less up to her penthouse. I wrote myself in a few back door programs when I worked there, so I can get you into the building. After that, you're on your own."

"Anything else you can tell me about Krios or his state of mind?" Kate asked.

"Not much," Seryna replied, "When I told him that I wanted to know who I was helping, he told me that he isn't doing the hit for money. Nobody hired him. He told me that he was doing this on his own to restore the balance of his life. That this was a long time coming. Maybe he's crazy, but if he can take down Nassana Dantius before she sends a hit squad after me, I don't care why he does it."

"If you want him to succeed so badly, why tell us all of this?" Castle asked. "Why help us at all?"

"You might be going in there to look for Krios, but Nassana will still see you as a threat," Seryna noted. "She'll try to stop you. If nothing else, you'll draw fire away from Krios and give him a clean shot. He might have his own reasons for wanting Nassana dead, but I won't shed a single tear if she gets what's coming to her."

"How soon can you get us in?" Kate asked, all- business.

"Tonight," Seryna replied, "during the construction crew shift change at Tower Two. That's when I told him the best time to sneak in would be."

 **Shortly after dark**

Two rental hover cars sped through midtown traffic on their way to Dantius Towers. Kate sat in the left seat of the lead car while Seryna drove. Castle sat in the back seat, checking his assault rifle and shotgun, his expression growing darker and more grim the closer they got to Dantius Towers. Clearly this wasn't his first run-in with Eclipse mercs. She recalled that a few of the security guards in Nos Astra's spaceport had eyed him warily as well and was beginning to wonder just how violent his encounter had been when he'd "helped" Liara while she'd been on ice. She'd rarely seen him this agitated before a combat deployment.

"The towers are heavily guarded," Seryna noted, drawing Kate's attention away from her husband and back to the task at hand. "You'll meet increasingly heavier security the closer you get to the bridge from Tower Two to Tower One and Nassana's penthouse offices."

"Noted," Kate replied, grateful for the distraction from her worry about Castle.

"So… Krios," Seryna added, a little unnerved by Castle's heightened attentiveness to his weapons. "You planning to stop him?"

"We're just here to make sure he survives," Kate replied. "Nassana Dantius will have to fend for herself."

Seryna nodded, returning her attention to the flight instruments and the car settled into an uneasy silence, broken only by the sound of Castle slapping home the ammo block, sliding in a fresh heat sink and working the charging lever.

"Here we are," Seryna stated after she maneuvered out of the traffic pattern, "Dantius Towers. I did a little digging while we waited, most of the security systems are still offline in Tower Two, so no automated defenses or traps. Eclipse will be well fortified and will fight you every step of the way, but without the security system they won't be able to coordinate with each other efficiently, especially with Krios on the move."

"With any luck we'll find him before it gets that far," Kate added, not sure she believed it, given what she'd heard about the assassin. She'd done some digging of her own. Thane Krios had a reputation for being nearly invisible, before appearing from the shadows to strike with surgical precision.

"All right," Seryna replied, not quite believing Beckett either, she'd met the Drell and taken his measure. "Let's do this."

She banked the hovercar sharply to put it into the landing pattern for the construction site parling area near Tower Two and opened the gull-wing door to let them out, noting the other car had settled behind them and done the same. Garrus, Grunt and Jack got out and approached them.

"Don't linger out here for long," Seryna admonished from the driver's seat of her car before she closed the door to leave, "They'll send mechs out here to investigate soon enough."

When Castle, Beckett, and the others walked through the front door of the bare bones atrium to the construction site, they saw two Loki mechs chasing three unarmed Salarian workers and shot them down. She barely had to nod before Grunt charged ahead and barreled into them, chuckling as he went. He tore the gun arm off one mech, picked it up by the remaining arm to batter it and it's partner to pieces. He swiveled around, drew his shotgun and shot the two mechanical dogs.

He turned and looked at the single security camera and roared "That all ya got?"

Garrus, Castle and Beckett moved in behind him with Jack bringing up the rear. They fanned out and cleared the unfinished lobby area, checking every door and closet. While Garrus ran a bypass of the security console at what would one day be the main desk, Castle and Beckett continued their sweep of the area. When the turned the corner toward the entrance to the main stairwell, they found one of the Salarians who had been attacked where he lay bleeding in front of the door.

"Help…" the Salarian gasped, "help me…"

"We have a live one here," Kate shouted, "Garrus bring the medkit."

"How bad is it?" Castle asked as he ran his omnitool over him to assess the damage.

"I… can't feel my legs," the Salarian gasped in reply as Castle continued scanning him. "My chest… feels like it's on fire.'

"Who did this to you and why?" Kate asked, memories of those first few minutes after she woke up on Lazarus Station coming back to her.

"We're just… night workers coming on shift," the salaruian rasped. "Nassana… sent them after us. Sent the mechs to… round us up. My group and I… didn't hear… went to our assigned work area. The mercs… they just started shooting…"

"They just attacked you?" Kate asked incredulously.

"Yes… we were too slow to respond," the Salarian gasped as he fought to breathe. "It was horrible… everyone… screaming. The mercs said there was no time. Nassana wanted us out of the way… immediately. Then… the dogs… I… I can't… breathe…"

Garrus slapped the medigel applicator into Castle's hand and he applied it, then activated it with his omni-tool.

"Here," Castle muttered softly, "this should ease the pain, make it easier for you to breathe. It'll keep you stable until help arrives. Can you walk?"

"I…" the Salarian muttered with all of the determination he could muster, "I can walk out of here."

"Garrus, go with him," Beckett ordered. "Set up a safe zone outside, we'll send any other survivors out to you. Triage any who are wounded until EMS arrives."

"This guy doesn't know where the assassin is," Jack snapped, but Castle leveled a glare at her and she fell silent. He recalled how many casualties there had been the last time he'd been here. The Shadow Broker had intentionally targeted civilians to draw them out, but Liara had been so focused on her goal that she'd paid them no mind. He had never known her to be so vengefully single minded.

He would not let that happen here. He'd kill every Eclipse merc who crossed his path before he would let them target civilians like the former Broker's private troops had done. He slapped home a fresh heat sink into his rifle and pulled the charging lever to lock it into place, his resolve as firmly set as the heat sink was.

"Take your time," Kate muttered softly to the injured Salarian, "Garrus here will go with you and keep you safe until help arrives."

"Find the... other workers…" the Salarian muttered as he rose slowly on his unsteady legs. "Help them... they were jumping off ledges to escape the dogs."

"We'll do what we can," Kate promised, hoping she'd be able to keep her word.

"Thank you," the Salarian replied as Garrus helped him toward the door.

"Lets get moving," Kate commanded, though she didn't see the look on Castle's face as he looked at the other dead Salarians.

Grunt keyed the door to the main stairwell, from the look exchanged between him and Jack, it was clear enough to Kate that the rest of her crew was spoiling for a fight.

No sooner had they stepped onto the next floor they got it. Eclipse mercs had certainly earned their reputation for ruthless, brutal efficiency, if not for military discipline. She'd expected Grunt would be the first into the fray, but it had been Castle instead who burst forward and attacked them with a combination of biotics and weapons fire as he tore into the mixed asari and human mercs. One asari burst toward him in full charge, but his barriers held and he nearly cut her in half with a swipe of his omni-blade.

Grunt was right behind him, chuckling as he swept through the combat zone, bashing Eclipse mercs who were stupid enough to get within arm's reach in the head with a Krogan war hammer he had welded together himself in Normandy's machine shop. Jack followed up in reserve along with Kate, both women somewhat taken aback by the ferocity of Castle's initial attack. Kate had not seen him so aggressively violent since Eden Prime. It worried her.

When the last of the mercs in the area lay dead and they swept the area they heard an insistent knocking on a door nearby. Castle bypassed the lock, biotics flaring, his shotgun at the ready.

"Please! Don't kill us!" one of a group of salrian workers cried out from inside the storage closet, "we'll go! We'll go!"

Castle stopped in his tracks and lowered his shotgun.

"Hey, Daroth, look, they're not Eclipse, " another Salarian whispered. "You're here to help us, right?"

"It's okay," Kate replied as she drew abreast of Castle in the doorway. "Have you seen anyone suspicious around who isn't a merc?"

"Well there's the guy who locked us in here," Daroth replied, then looked at his work partner. "Right, Shelum?"

"Yeah," Shelum agreed. "When he found us hiding in here, I thought we were dead, but he just closed the door and locked us in."

"This assassin lacks commitment," Grunt rumbled, sounding almost disappointed.

"Assassin?" Daroth asked, confused.

"Here for Nassana, I'll bet," Shelum explained as much to his friend as to them. "She certainly has it coming. You treat people like this and it always comes back to bite you in the cloaca."

"Did you get a good look at him?" Kate asked. "Any idea where he might have gone?"

"He's no Salarian, I can tell you that much," Shelum offered, "but he didn't give us any clue to where he was going, sorry."

"If he's after Nassana, he'll be heading for the upper levels.," Daroth added.

"Anything you can tell us about getting up to Nassana's penthouse?" Kate asked.

"The cargo elevators are the fastest way up, the one here will take you up the next ten floors," Shellum advised. "There's another one to take you up the next ten, one level below the connecting bridge."

"The construction is mostly unfinished up top," Daroth added. "Watch your step, some of the walls aren't in and it's a long way down."

"Cold too," Shelum agreed, "I hate working up there."

"Are there many more workers in the tower?" Castle asked. "Anyone we should keep an eye out for?"

"Not alive, I'm afraid," Shelum noted sadly. "We were lucky."

"Well. Some got out before Nassana sent in the dogs," Daroth added hopefully, "there might be a few hiding like we were."

"I wouldn't stay here," Kate offered. "It should be safe enough now for you two and the others to get to the lower levels. One of my people is setting up a safe zone until the authorities arrive. Look for a Turian in unmarked blue armor. Garrus will look after you."

"Sounds good," Daroth agreed. "Lets get out of here everyone."

Daroth and the other Salarians filed past them out of the storage closet.

"Thank you," Shelum affirmed as he walked past. "Tell you assassin to aim for her head, because Nassana doesn't have a heart."

Kate and the others waited until they were certain that the small group of Salarians had departed, then they turned toward the cargo elevator and took it up the next ten levels.

* * *

 **A few minutes later**

As the elevator door slid silently open, Castle and Beckett could see a human male in Eclipse armor standing with his back to them his eyes intent on the massive window which had only recently installed. Though they couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, his was clearly discernible

" _I haven't heard from teams Four or Five."  
_

" _Don't worry, my team is always ready to go."_

" _Don't worry about it. No, we don't need reinforcements, it's under control. I'll go down there myself."_

Kate and Rick looked at each other and leveled their rifles, deciding with nearly one mind that they had heard quite enough.

"Turn around, very slowly," Kate commanded, sounding very much like the cop she had once been. "Reach for that gun and you won't live long enough to use it."

"Damn it," the man muttered as he raised his hands and turned around.

"Have you seen the assassin?" Kate asked sharply, her rifle directed at his center mass.

"You aren't with any of Nassana's other mercs," the man challenged. "Who are you? Why are you looking for him?"

"We'll ask the questions," Castle responded harshly as Grunt worked the muscles of his neck menacingly and Jack's biotics flared. "You've got two ways down, express or coach. Consider you next words carefully."

"I'm not sure how much longer I can hold my partner and his friends back," Kate added, seamlessly switching to good cop, not realizing she'd misread Castle's intentions. "Tell me where the assassin is and maybe we can work something out."

"I've got nothing more to say to you," the man said defiantly. "My team's right through that door, shoot me and they'll be all over you."

Before another word could be spoken, Castle's biotics flared and he burst forward into the man, shoving him through the window shattering the glass. They could hear him screaming all they way to the bottom.

Castle stood in the opening, his eyes focused on nothing.

"How about goodbye?" he snarled into the broken window.

Kate looked at him, horrified. She could see the darkness in his eyes but had no idea they beheld another scene much like this one years before. He's seen the blood and death with his own eyes on the streets of Nos Astra, untold number of civilian casualties, but Liara had pulled him along after her to her ship the violence covering their escape and he'd been helpless to prevent the slaughter. In his dreams, he could sometimes still hear them screaming before the hatch of her ship slammed shut.

' _Not this time,'_ he thought to himself. ' _Never again."_

"Damn, Castle," Jack snarked, breaking the silence and the spell of the moment, "I should take notes from you."

Kate wasn't sure if she was grateful for Jack's interruption or not as she hefted her rifle and turned toward the door. They would likely have to go through the man's squad of mercs to get to the bridge between the buildings. She hoped that when it was over, he would still be the man she knew on the other side.

Though the two squads of Eclipse mercs were poorly deployed and coordinated - clearly spread out to search for a lone assassin not a squad of assault troops – the fight had been brutal, and at times hand to hand. Castle's grim, remorseless assaults ran counterpoint to both Jack's battle rage, and Grunt's gleeful rampage.

Aside from Grunt's amused chuckle and the rustle of activity as heat sinks were switched out and locked, the elevator was silent and grim. When the doors opened, they fanned out and assaulted the small remaining force guarding the bridge. Jack's biotics swept several off either side of the unfinished, uncovered bridge.

Grunt smashed mercs with his hammer and shot mechs with his shotgun. The battle ended with the silent whisper of wind as the last of Tower Two's defenders fell.

There was no one to stop them as they swept across the bridge and up the ramp to the floor of Nassana's penthouse office. Any remaining bodyguards had fallen back, though only a few were visible when the door to said office slid open and they swept inside to find weapons trained on them, but Nassana Dantius waved them back.

"Captain Beckett?" Nassana asked, confused. "But you're supposed to be dead."

"I got better," Kate asserted defiantly, her rifle unwavering.

"And apparently you've made it this far," Nassana shot back. "Now what?"

"Do you really think the Council sent me here to kill you?" Kate responded. "Believe me, you aren't that important."

"Do you have _another_ reason for assaulting my tower?" Nassana asked belligerently. "Decimating my security?"

"I'm looking for somebody," Kate replied, "Once we find him, we'll be on our way."

"You expect me to believe that?" Nassana spat. "Is it credits? Is that what you want? Name your price and we can make this go away."

"All the credits in every bank on Nos Astra won't make this go away, Ms. Dantius," Castle replied darkly, as dark as his mood had been, he could still read Kate's intentions clearly, to which she was grateful.

"Who the hell have you the right to play goddess?" Nassana ranted. "I may not be perfect, but look at you! We both kill people for money, what's the difference?"

"You kill people because you think they're beneath you, or they're in your way," Kate asserted without skipping a beat, "I do it to protect innocent people from monsters like you who leave me no choice."

"You have a choice," Nassana retorted., "You don't have to do this. I can tell you…"

Her reply was cut short by the low thumping of movement within the vents. Everyone looked up, Nassana's bodyguards included, as if struck still by the interruption, even though Castle and Beckett had known something like this might happen.

"What?" Nassana demanded attracting the attention of the Asari huntress in charge of her security "By the goddess… Don't just stand there, check the other entrances!"

"You…" She snarled as she turned back to Kate, "stay put."

Nobody saw the dark shape slip soundlessly from the air vents in the ceiling and melt from the shadows as he reached for the nearest bodyguard's head.

"When I'm finished dealing with this nuisance, you and I are going to…"

Nassana Dantius was interrupted for the last time as the dark shape snapped the guard's neck in one swift movement then before the body hit the ground drove his knuckles into another, crushing her windpipe, choking to death as she collapsed to the deck. Without so much as breaking his graceful movement he withdrew a pistol, shot another asari commando in the head before she could so much as erect her barriers or utter a word of warning. The assassin swept around and the barrel of his silenced pistol brushed Nassana's midsection pointing slightly upward as he pulled the trigger once.

"Who?" was all Nassana croaked out before before she slumped over dead into the assassin's arms. Almost reverently, he lay her across her own desk, folded her arms over her chest then stepped back, clasping his hands together and bowing his head as if in supplication.

"Nice entrance," Jack noted, but was ignored.

"Thane Krios?" Kate stated once the shock had worn off, "I was hoping to talk to you."

The leathery-skinned assassin paused for several seconds without lifting his head to look at her.

"I apologize," Thane Krios offered, his head still bowed, "but prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken."

"Do you really think she deserves it?" Castle asked gruffly.

"Not for her," Thane replied without looking up. "For me.

Thane finally raised his head and looked Kate in the eye.

"The measure of an individual can be difficult to discern by actions alone," he stated. "Take you, for example. All this destruction… chaos. I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me. Well, here I am."

Kate was taken aback. She had no idea how an assassin might behave, but clearly this wasn't it.

"How did you know I was coming at all?" she finally replied.

"I didn't," Thane shot back, "not until you marched through the front door and started shooting. Nassana had become paranoid. You saw the strength of her guard force. She believed one of her sisters wanted to kill her. You were a valuable distraction."

"You bastard," Kate seethed. "You used me… to commit murder."

"I needed a diversion," Thane reasoned softly, hardly noting her anger. "You needed to speak with me. You certainly fulfilled your end of the bargain. What would you like to discuss?"

"The Collectors are abducting entire human colonies," Kate replied, doing her best to choke back her anger. "We're going to stop them and we could use your help."

"I've heard of them… by reputation," Thane replied. "Attacking the collectors would require passing through the Omega Four mass relay. No ship has ever returned from doing so."

"They told me it was impossible to get to Ilos too," Kate shot back indignantly.

"A fair point," Thane acknowledged. "You've built a career on performing the impossible."

"Some would call this is a suicide mission," Castle interjected, "we intend to prove them wrong."

Thane paused as if considering his options.

"A suicide mission," he muttered half to himself. "Yes, a suicide mission will do nicely."

"This was to be my last job." He stated, his gaze even, but his eyes almost sad as he looked upon them. "I'm dying. Low survival odds don't concern me. The abduction of your colonists does."

"I hadn't heard that," Kate offered, suddenly compassionate even through her dissolving anger. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Allowing me this opportunity is enough." Thane offered. "The universe is a dark place. I'm trying to make it brighter before I die. Many innocents died today. I wasn't fast enough and they suffered. I must atone for that. I will work for you, Captain Beckett. No charge. My arm is yours to wield."

"We're based out of the Normandy at Docking bay ninety four," Kate noted. "We'll be in port for three more days, pack up whatever you need and meet us there."

Thane nodded and they parted ways. When Kate looked back again, he was gone.

* * *

 **A short time later  
SSV Normandy briefing room**

"I've heard impressive stories, Krios." Ann Hastings noted sarcastically, "Sounds like you'll be an asset to the team."

It was clear that that Hastings didn't approve of him, or his presence aboard "her" ship when she turned an aside toward Kate, "That is, if you're comfortable having an assassin watch your back."

"I've accepted a contract," Thane asserted stoically. "My arm is Captain Beckett's"

"Uh, huh," Hastings noted spitefully, "I don't know about you, but I'm loyal to more than my next paycheck."

"Obviously he is, too," Castle replied, bringing Hastings up short. "He's doing this mission gratis."

"What's your concern?" Kate asked, not revealing that she felt much the same, though it was clear that Castle was softening toward the reptilian Drell.

"I don't like mercenaries." Hastings asserted, "An assassin is just a precise mercenary."

"An assassin is a weapon," Thane responded almost by rote. "A weapon doesn't choose to kill, the one who wields it does."

Before either Hastings or Kate could respond, he returned to the business at hand.

"Where shall I put my things?" He asked, "I'd prefer someplace dry, if anything is available."

"The third officer's quarters are unoccupied," Jenny offered without prompting as her chess piece avatar flared to life. "It is near the life support plant on the crew deck and tends to be slightly more arid than the rest of the ship."

"Ah," Thane noted, slightly surprised though he recovered quickly. "An AI? My thanks."

Thane bowed first to Jenny's avatar then turned and bowed to Kate before taking his leave and leaving the room. Castle nodded and followed close behind. Some of his old enthusiasm apparently back.

"He seems quite civil." Jenny added, before her avatar disappeared and her terminal went dark.

"Hastings," Kate noted once the two women were alone in the briefing room. "We need him, but that doesn't mean I trust him. Let me know if he turns into a problem. Dismissed."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Hastings replied, saluted, the turned on her heel and left Kate behind in the room, more bewildered than ever.

* * *

 ** _**Author's note** Castle coming to terms with the Cypher, the essence of an entire dead alien culture jammed into his brain is a major arc of this story._**


	12. Interlude

**Chapter Twelve  
Interlude**

* * *

" _Whenever I'm weary  
From the battles that rage in my head  
You make sense of madness  
When my sanity hangs by a thread  
I lose my way but still you seem to understand  
Now and forever I will be your man"_  
Richard Marx: Now and Forever

* * *

" _The very essence of everything the Protheans had been is now a part of you."_

" _... called Reapers..."_

" _...the Citadel... overwhelmed..._

" _...only hope..."_

" _Our numbers will darken the skies of every civilized world. You cannot escape your doom."_

" _... all is lost..."_

" _I am the vanguard of your destruction."_

" _... cannot be stopped... cannot be stopped..."_

 _Richard Castle woke with a start and rose from the bed without waking Kate next to him and stumbled into the bathroom of their quarters on the Normandy. He filled the sink basin with cold water and splashed it on his face then reached for a towel before looking up into the mirror._

 _In place of his own features was the severe, four eyed, crested face of a Prothean looking back at him._

* * *

"Kate!"

Castle snapped awake crying out, his eyes glazed over, which woke Kate from a sound sleep to see him sitting bolt upright in bed hyperventilating, trying to scream her name again, only no sound came out. Kate didn't understand what had set off the panic attack he was having but she moved quickly.

"Castle?" she said as calmly as she could. "Castle, can you hear me?"

Castle nodded sharply, doing his best to get his breathing under control as she gently brushed his face and hair as though willing him to come back to her from whatever nightmare had gripped him.

"Kate," he pleaded between choking attempts to breathe, sounding every bit like a scared little boy, "I'm still… human, right? Tell me… tell me… I'm still… human."

"Of course you are, Castle," Kate whispered taking his right hand in both of hers, "you're still human, okay?. You're right here with me."

"Jenny, have Dr. Parrish report to my quarters," Kate commanded, "tell her it's a confidential matter."

"Understood, Captain," Jenny's disembodied voice replied.

* * *

 **A few minutes later**

Kate waited in the living area of their quarters pacing back and forth while Lanie gave Castle a cursory examination. After a few more paces back and forth across the small office area, Lanie walked up the five steps to join her.

"I gave him something to help him sleep," Lanie offered without preamble, "but, I've been afraid of something like this, ever since Eden Prime."

"Is he…" Kate asked, "will he be okay?"

"He seems to be healthy enough," Lanie replied. "Ever since that damned Asari on Feros jammed his head with Prothean mind-fuckery, his neural pathways have assimilated about as well as could be expected under the circumstances. Though I don't doubt it had a part to play in whatever nightmare set him off, this seems to be mostly stress related. He's been pushing himself way too hard for the past year and a half and now it's coming back to bite him in the ass."

"What's the prognosis, Lanie?" Kate asked, her eyes drawn to her sleeping husband.

"What he needs most is rest," Lanie replied. "If this were an Alliance ship, I'd restrict him to light duty for a week after a full day of bed rest. But since he's about as likely to accept that as you would, for now, just let him rest for the next twenty four hours."

"We won't be going anywhere until Tali's cyclonic barrier modifications are completed and Miranda comes back from whatever "business" she has in Nos Astra," Kate offered, "I think I can keep him here for at least a day."

"What I gave him should keep him down for the count for the next couple hours," Lanie offered, "but in the interest of keeping you from wearing a rut in the floor worrying about him, I have something I need you to do for me."

"And what might that be?" Kate asked, too concerned for Castle to even be irritated with her friend.

"Thane Krios," Lanie noted, "I've tried to get him to come in for his physical, but I get the feeling he's ducking me. He may be terminally ill, but as long as he's on this crew, it's my job to keep his scaly ass alive."

"All right, Lanie," Kate replied, as she walked her friend and doctor out the door. She'd been putting off confronting Thane, given her first impression of the Drell assassin, but she figured conducting an interview would at least keep her mind occupied while Castle slept. It certainly beat pacing the floor waiting for him to wake up from the sedatives Lanie had given him.

"Jenny, monitor Castle's vitals," Kate commanded after changing into her uniform, "if he becomes agitated, or you detect the signs of another panic attack, I want to know about it, ASAP."

"Understood, Captain," Jenny's chess-piece avatar replied.

* * *

Kate had barely stepped into the lift when Hastings voice came over the comms.

"Uh… Captain." Hastings said nervously, "Ryan and the AI are having an… argument. Can you come up to the CIC and head it off before he blows a gasket?"

Kate could hear Ryan shouting obscenities almost as soon as the lift doors opened to admit her to the CIC. As she walked past the duty stations, she noted the stares and muttered asides.

"All of you, shut it," she snapped on her way through and all the muttering stopped. "Hastings get these people back to their duties… now!"

"Aye Captain," Hastings replied, then turned to the rest of the CIC. "All right everybody, show's over, back to your stations!"

"What the hell is going on up here?" Kate asked sharply, cutting off another string of expletives.

"This thing wants to fire me over a joke!" Ryan complained, "Okay… I _may_ have mentioned in passing that I'd like to set off a disruptor grenade in the AI core."

Kate continued to glare at him, which got across the point that he needed to mind his tone and she was not in the mood for his bullshit.

"We'd only lose a few systems…" Ryan added sheepishly, "nosy ones."

"To clarify," Jenny noted, her voice implacably calm as usual, "human resource decisions are not under my direct authority."

"Then why?" Ryan shot back, not even realizing he was arguing with her as though she was human, not an AI. "Why do you keep picking at me?"

"My interaction with you was intended to provoke, not to cause you distress," Jenny replied. "Your reactions to stimuli are atypical of most of the humans I have encountered since my activation. You are... interesting."

"She pushes your buttons to get a rise out of you," Kate noted dryly. "About time somebody did, if you ask me."

"Yeah… great," Ryan noted with great chagrin, "I just got worked by the intercom."

"It was not my intent to breed hostility, Mr Ryan," Jenny stated, sounding almost contrite, "but you did instigate the adversarial nature of our interaction."

"Okay then," Ryan grumbled, "try not to take this the wrong way, but… shut up."

Since Ryan seemed to have calmed down enough to return to his duties, Kate turned on her heel and and left, though she couldn't help the amused grin at Ryan's predicament. Though it went against all logic, it would seem that Jenny... liked him. An amusing turn of events which had lightened her mood, if only just a little.

* * *

 **Thane Krios' Quarters**

Kate was admitted to Thane's quarters after a few short knocks.

Greetings Captain," Thane said as he offered her a seat. "Do you require something of me?"

"Have a few minutes to talk?" Kate asked brusquely.

"Certainly," Thane replied, pretending not to notice the light adversarial tone her voice had taken. "We haven't had a chance since I came aboard."

"When we met," Kate noted, hoping to get right to what Lanie had asked of her so she could end the conversation more quickly, "you said you were dying."

"If it will set yours or Dr. Parish's minds to rest, Captain," Thane replied without any rancor. "The illness that will end my life is not communicable, even to other Drell. It's called Keprel's syndrome."

"Are you going to be alright until the end of the mission?" Kate asked. In spite of her reservations about him, she still felt a certain amount of sympathy for him.

"I should be fine for another eight to twelve months," Thane offered, "though the longer I spend in humid environments, the faster it progresses. It's safe to say, however, that well before my body is incapacitated, we'll either be victorious or dead. Either way, I will not be a burden."

"What exactly is Keprel's syndrome?" Kate asked, her curiosity getting the better of her in spite of herself.

"My people are native to Rakhana, an arid world on the fringes of Hanar space," Thane explained, "but most of my people live on Kaje, the Hanar homeworld, which is much more humid and my people are still adapting to it. For those of us suffering from Keprel's Syndrome, our lung tissue slowly loses its ability to absorb oxygen making it increasingly harder to breathe until eventually, in the final stages of it, we suffocate."

"Can't the Hanar do something?" Kate asked, sympathy softening her tone.

"They have funded a genetic engineering program to help us adapt," Thane explained, "but my body will likely be given to the deep long before it bears fruit."

"Is there anything we can do for you here?" Kate offered, remembering why she was there. "Normandy has a state- of- the art medical bay, not to mention two doctors aboard experienced in multi-species medicine."

"No, thank you," Thane responded, "if the finest medical minds in the Hanar Illuminated Primacy can't solve the problem, I doubt there is much your ship's medics could do. I thank Dr Parish for her concern. Trust me, this won't affect my performance."

"Dr Parish would deeply appreciate it if you would at least see her for a baseline physical," Kate added, "she takes her job very seriously."

"Of course, Captain," Thane agreed, "is there anything more you wish to know?"

Kate very nearly rose from her seat, but was instantly struck with a question she was sure Castle would have asked had he been at her side, his lack of presence tearing at her.

"When you _"pray for the wicked"_ like you were doing when we met," she asked, "who exactly are you praying to?"

"That depends on the circumstance," Thane offered, seemingly more at ease with this topic than he was with his health. "To find my target, I speak to Amonkira, Lord of Hunters. When I act to defend another… Arashu, Goddess of Motherhood and Protection. When I've taken my target, I speak to Kalahira, Goddess of Oceans and the Afterlife."

"I didn't know the Drell had so many gods." Kate noted.

"It is one of our older beliefs," Thane stated. "One that goes back to before we left Rakhana. Since entering the galactic community, my people have discovered so many ways to interpret one's place in the universe that many of my people see no reason to embrace the wisdom of our ancestors. The younger generation don't believe the old ways can help us fathom genetic engineering, orbital strikes, or alien races. Especially since they didn't protect us from the tragedy that befell us."

"If you don't mind my saying," Kate noted, "you don't seem like a typical assassin to me."

"You've spent too much time fighting thugs who think custom-painted armor makes them professionals," Thane replied with disgust. "The Hanar trained my body for this role since I was six years old."

"You've been killing since you were six?" Kate asked, horrified at the thought of it.

"Of course not," Thane corrected, "I didn't make my first kill until I was twelve. I was not to be used and then thrown away. I was an investment."

His explanation did not make her feel any better about it. It actually made her more indignant.

"It doesn't matter whether you were six or sixteen," she hissed, "you were a child, not an investment!"

"I've given you the wrong idea," Thane backpedaled. "Yes, they valued me as a resource, but also as a person. The Hanar… made it clear from the time they began training me that they… regretted their need for me."

"The Hanar?" Kate asked incredulously. "Excessively polite sentient jellyfish who worship the Protheans? They don't seem like the type who'd train assassins."

"Every species trains assassins," Thane explained. "The Hanar are only unusual in that they need other species to do the killing for them. They have a strong grip and natural toxins, but have you ever seen one move quickly outside of water, or fire a gun?"

"Why would your parents agree to this?" Kate asked, trying to calm herself.

"The request was made under the compact," Thane stated. "It was a great honor for my family that I was selected."

"The Compact?" Kate asked, confused.

"The Hanar rescued my people from extinction," Thane noted. "Humans may have developed mass effect drive before overpopulation became acute, but Rakhana had few natural resources. We hadn't even developed fusion power when the soil began to fail from overuse and pollution. The Hanar found us a century ago. They sent hundreds of ships… evacuated thousands of my people and set aside a place for us on what little dry land exists on their homeworld. Billions had to be left behind, those of us who survived owe them our lives. That is the Compact."

"What exactly are the terms of the Compact?" Kate asked, the lawyer her parents once wanted her to be coming to the fore. She knew her mother would have been profoundly disgusted at such a notion.

"There are many things the Hanar cannot do," Thane remarked, "not even with mechanical aid. They ask Drell to assist them."

"That sounds like a very polite form of slavery." Kate remarked harshly, much as her mother would have done.

"Don't insult me, the Hanar or my people, Captain," Thane warned, his voice as angry as Kate had yet heard it, though it cooled quickly. "Anyone may refuse to serve - myself included - without penalty, though few do. We owe our existence to the Hanar and we are proud to repay the debt."

"Clearly you don't kill for the Hanar anymore," Kate asked, hoping to change the subject. "What changed?"

"I was asleep for a long time, yes," Thane replied. "I paid no attention to what my body was asked to do, but then…"

Thane's eyes clouded over, turning nearly all black and his voice took on a dull tone as though fixed upon something only he could see.

"Laser dot trembles on his skull. One finger twitch, he dies. The smell of spice on the spring wind. Sunset colored eyes defiant in the scope. The laser dances away."

As quickly as the moment came, Thane shook it off and his eyes returned to normal.

"My apologies, Captain…" he offered, "Drell slip into memories so easily."

"Was that one of your assassinations?" Kate asked, intrigued in spite of herself, usually it was Castle who was all about the story, but Thane's had her rapt attention.

"Ah… yes," Thane replied, almost embarrassed, "Drell have perfect memories. We can relive any moment of our lives with absolute clarity. It can be... difficult to control at times."

"What do you mean?" Kate asked.

"When a memory feels as real as life, it's as valid as life," Thane explained. "Thinking about a moment for us can bring back the smell of cut grass, the warmth of another's hand on yours, or the taste of another's tongue in your mouth. Wouldn't you rather lose yourself in such memories than spend your nights alone, staring at walls of metal and plastic?"

"Isn't there a risk that you could lose yourself in bad memories as well?" Kate asked. She could think of several memories she would not wish to relive with such absolute clarity. Not all were recent. She was sure that – especially given this morning - Castle would agree with her.

"Of course," Thane agreed, "I can remember every death I have ever caused in perfect detail. Every mistake made, every target's last breath."

"Sounds difficult," Kate noted, her distaste for his profession returning to the fore. "At any moment, you could relive the guilt."

"I've never felt any particular guilt about my contracts," Thane replied. "My employers killed them. My body was simply the tool they used to do so. If you kill a man with your gun, do you hold the gun responsible?"

"My gun can't decide right from wrong," Kate shot back. "You clearly are capable of doing so."

"My soul does, yes," Thane offered, "but my body is merely flesh whose reflexes were honed to kill. Drell see the body as just a vessel and we accept that it is not always under our control. Humans also tend to believe in a soul distinct from the body, responsible for moral reasoning that lives on after the body's death. To us, that belief is just a bit more literal."

"You said something about sunset- colored eyes?" Kate noted.

"Ah, yes…" Thane replied softly, though something held him back from saying more on the subject, his body language told her this memory meant a great deal to him. "A… bystander noticed my spotting laser and threw herself between me and the target. She couldn't see me, but she stared me down. Irikah… was a very vivid person."

"Did you take the shot?" Kate asked, fascinated that he clearly knew this bystander well enough to know her first name, though his whole body language softened at the mention of her, it was swiftly locked back away. Clearly, whomever this Irikah was, she was a story for another day.

"Not… that day," Thane finally replied, "I kill only my intended target, taking the life of an innocent is unacceptable."

"I need to go…" Kate whispered, when she noted the time... she had been gone much longer than she'd intended, "I should check in on Castle… he isn't well… you've given me a lot to think about."

"Captain Beckett…" Thane offered, "thank you for coming to talk with me. Many would have simply judged me for my profession alone like your Lt. Hastings."

* * *

 **Meanwhile  
Captain's Quarters**

Kate had barely been gone for an hour when Castle woke to an insistent tapping on the door. Though the sedative Lanie had given him tugged at his consciousness, he hauled himself out of bed and tottered sleepily toward the door, pulling a robe over his pajamas as he went and tying it closed just before keying open the door. Before he could say a word, Jack brushed past him, her eyes focused on something only she could see.

"I got thoughts like little bugs crawling in and out of my head," Jack whispered skittishly. Clearly she hadn't had much sleep, her shoulders and back a riot of tense muscle, "I can't stop em."

Though she declined the chair he offered, she accepted the bottle of water he proffered to her before he sat down himself. She paced back and forth nervously, taking periodic sips from the water bottle as though working up the courage to speak.

"You know I have a history with Cerberus," she finally whispered. "You know how far back it goes?"

"I'll listen to anything you have to say, Jack," Castle replied, realizing it had taken a lot for her to trust him with whatever it was that had clearly kept her up all night.

"Your wife's pal, the Illusive Man?" Jack began nervously, her eyes darting everywhere to avoid meeting his, as though expecting her demons to crawl out of the walls to drag her back to the hell she'd escaped from. "I've never heard of him before, but Cerberus raised me. The first thing I remember is my cell door in a Cerberus research facility. They did experiments on me. Drugged me… tortured me. Whatever chance I might have had to be normal… they stole it trying to turn me into some sort of super-biotic."

"What did they hope to gain by torturing a little girl?" Castle asked, horrified, unable to keep the thought in his head. His mind's eye flashed to his own little girl and a. dark, dangerous anger slowly festered in his guts.

"Something about pain breaking down mental barriers," Jack replied, as she began pacing again, her arms crossed, "how it might clear the way for stronger biotic power. I'm sure there was a payoff at some point, but I was never gonna see it wired up in a cell."

"They tortured you just to see if they could make a stronger biotic?" Castle hissed.

"I wasn't exactly in a position to ask for details, Castle," Jack snapped, but then flinched, her eyes haunted by something only she could see, her voice softened and suddenly she was a scared little girl, blinking back tears by force of will alone. "All I remember was… a little girl... crying in a cell… begging for the pain to stop…"

"Were there other children there?" Castle asked softly, starting to reach for her hand, but stopped when she flinched back away from him.

"I didn't know much about em... they kept me kept separate," she replied, anger clouding her features once more. "They hated me just like everybody else there... had to fight through them all when I... when I broke out."

"How did you escape?" Castle asked softly, hoping to encourage her to keep talking to him, walking a fine line to keep from spooking her.

"There was some sort of emergency... I think," she muttered haltingly, pacing again, "the guards... didn't lock my cell door properly... so I made a break for it. The other kids were out of their cells. They attacked me… so did the guards... I just killed everyone in my way and ran. It's all a blur. Guess my biotics had developed faster than they'd thought. I managed to get a shuttle off the ground. Drifted until a freighter picked me up. The crew... used me… then sold me. That's my uplifting escape story."

"You're certain it was Cerberus?" Castle asked, though he certainly didn't put such a thing beyond them.

"I was a kid, but I wasn't dumb," Jack snapped, her eyes hardening "I knew how to listen. It was Cerberus… don't care how far down the chain it was."

Jack paced some more, but her hesitation seemed to dissipate, a slow burning rage taking its place.

"They thought they were so clever," she whispered dangerously, her biotics flaring., "Turns out, you mess with somebody's mind enough and you can turn a scared little girl into an all-powerful _bitch_. Fucking idiots. I showed 'em... there's only one loose end left I need to deal with."

"I'm gonna talk to Kate," Castle promised, his own anger rising, "we'll get to the bottom of this. The Illusive Man better have answers."

"Don't bother, he'll just deny everything, his excuses aren't what I'm after," Jack scoffed, her eyes once again dark, angry cinders, all traces of the scared little girl from moments before locked securely away. "I found the coordinates for the Teltin Facility on Pragia where they... drugged and tortured me... in my files. I want to go to the center of the place… my cell. I want to deploy a big _fucking_ bomb and watch from orbit when it goes."

"You want us to destroy a Cerberus facility?" Castle asked incredulously, as much as he wanted to help her, alienating the Illusive Man at this stage of the operation wouldn't sit well with Kate, no matter how much she might sympathize with what Jack had been through.

"The files say it was shut down after my escape," Jack retorted darkly, "I did my homework once I knew what to look for in the files. It's been abandoned for years. They gonna care if I destroy a garbage dump?"

"I'll talk to Kate," Castle promised, "might not be right away, but I'll ask her if we can divert to Pragia as soon as the mission will allow."

Jack seemed to relax for just a moment, her body language softening a fraction, a war raging behind her eyes as she fought for how to respond.

"Thanks for listening, Castle," she whispered, ducking her head to avoid meeting his eyes on her way to the door, as if ashamed she'd asked for his help in the first place. As if she'd expected a different reaction from him, "for hearing me out. This stuff is... hard to talk about. I... appreciate it."

The door slammed shut behind her as she retreated like a spooked deer.

Castle couldn't help himself, but respond the same way he would have whenever Alexis thanked him for something he'd have done for her regardless. One he always meant when he said it, no matter whom he said it to. Even though he only whispered it to the closed bulkhead door.

"Always."

He stood staring at the sealed bulkhead door for another minute or so, before feeling the overriding desire to call Alexis again. To see her face on the vid screen in spite of the very late hour on Elysium. To know she was somewhere safe, not in the dark place his imagination was taking him.

There was one thing he did know, a solemn vow he made to himself as he turned toward the comm terminal keyed in his comm request for the Grissom Academy. Somebody was gonna pay for what was done to the little girl Jack had once been. He'd Joined the Alliance Marines to protect people from such evil. He would find answers and then retribution would come at muzzle velocity.

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** Though I had intended to go right into the next mission, enough readers had expressed disdain for Thane Krios, I thought a little interlude to explore him was in order. Having Kate seek out "Thane's story" Castle style was an interesting twist, too, I think.**_

 _ **Jack needed a little fleshing out too. For those of you concerned that he offered "Always" in relation to Jack, bear in mind that Castle looks at her and kinda sees Alexis, I think you can do the math on where his head is at.**_

 _ **For my readers more versed in Mass Effect, I plan to connect Miranda and Jack in a way neither of them realize yet. The more I played ME 2, the more coincidental connections I saw between them IMHO.**_


	13. Sisters

**Chapter Thirteen  
Sisters**

* * *

" _If you're lost, you can look and you will find me  
Time after time  
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting  
Time after time  
_Cyndi Lauper: "Time After Time"

* * *

Richard Castle was still sitting in the office area of their cabin, contemplating the recently darkened screen of the comm terminal when the door unsealed and opened to admit Kate... who seemed surprised to see him not just awake, but deep in contemplative thought.

"Hey," Kate offered softly, "what are you doing up?"

"Jack was here not long ago," Castle replied, deflating slightly. "Told me more of her story... it... hit a little closer to home than I expected."

"Close enough to merit waking Alexis up at this hour?" Kate noted, her eyes drawn to the comm panel exit screen. She could tell that whatever Jack had told him must have disturbed him greatly.

"She was still up studying," Castle replied, "guess she has an exam coming up."

"Since you're already up," Kate began, "you up for dinner out?"

"I could eat," Castle replied, "and a little fresh air couldn't hurt."

"Good," Kate added, "Miranda invited me to meet her for dinner at some high-end club in Nos Astra called Eternity. She sounded a little _too_ informal about it."

"Sounds like something isn't right in Denmark," Castle agreed.

"You might want to get dressed," Kate noted with a hint of snark after taking in his sweatpants and robe, "this place sounds like it has a dress code."

"I think I can manage that." Castle nodded toward the shower. "Wanna help me wash my back?"

"Why Mr. Beckett, is that an invitation?" Kate asked, her tone filled with mischief.

"You know, Mrs. Castle, I do believe it is," Castle agreed.

* * *

Though it took a little longer to "wash each other's back" than either of them expected, both Castle and Beckett arrived at Eternity on time, dressed to the nines; Castle in a nicely tailored suit that Kate didn't know he'd brought with him, Kate on his arm in a blue, form fitting vintage Herve Legere dress complete with matching heels and a shawl.

The couple made quite the impression on the other patrons of the establishment as the Maitre d' guided them to what was likely Miranda's private table. Many of the men... and more than a few women in the establishment stared unabashedly at Kate as they were seated.

Once Castle and Beckett were settled, made their order and the waiter had disappeared, Miranda activated a small device and set it in the center of the table.

"There," Miranda muttered, "that should keep our conversation private."

"This is certainly a very swanky restaurant." Kate asked, "Why all the subterfuge?"

"Captain Beckett," Miranda began, "I find myself in the unpleasant position of having to ask for your help. I don't like involving the people I work with in my personal matters, but this is too important for me to stand on formality."

"Miranda, you're on my crew," Kate offered, "tell me what's on your mind."

"Before I get to that, you should know…" Miranda began almost haltingly, "before I joined Cerberus, I was the heir apparent to a very wealthy, but abusive businessman in the biogenetics field. My father… is powerful, influential and extremely controlling. He didn't want a family, he wanted a dynasty."

"What about your mother?" Castle asked. "Where was she in all of this?"

"I never had one," Miranda replied, "Father had me... created in a lab. Most of my genetic material was based upon his DNA with his Y chromosome replaced by an amalgam of desired feminine traits from various sources. After I hit puberty, he'd followed that up with extensive genetic modification. I escaped as soon as I was old and brave enough and joined Cerberus because it was the only organization that could protect me from him."

"How bad were the terms you and your father parted on?" Kate asked.

"Shots were fired," Miranda replied bluntly.

"You seem capable of defending yourself." Castle noted. "Why did you need Cerberus?"

"My father invested a great deal of time and money into creating his... dynasty. It wasn't just a matter of leaving, I knew he would continue to pursue his… investment. Besides, there was an even more important reason I went to Cerberus for protection."

"What further reason did you need?" Castle asked, clearly horrified. At this rate he'd be interrupting Alexis' study habits for the foreseeable future if too many more horror stories involving children kept cropping up.

"I have a sister, a… twin… an unmodified genetic duplicate," Miranda offered with difficulty. "I took her with me when I escaped and he's still hunting for her. With the genetic data to create another… me… destroyed, without her he'd have to go back to square one and he'd never live to see it. Oriana deserves better than what father did to me. She's been living a normal life here on Illium, safely hidden from our father. I've quietly redirected resources from nearly every Cerberus project I've ever worked on to keep her safe… until now."

"You believe your father's tracked her down?" Castle asked.

"Precisely," Miranda noted with urgency, "I've done everything I could to keep her hidden without impacting her life, but I've run out of options. Father's too close, I need to relocate her and her foster family before it's too late."

"What do you know about her?" Kate asked.

"She's my genetic twin," Miranda noted, "we're identical in almost every way, except she's had none of the genetic... enhancements that were forced upon me. She deserves a happy, normal life - not as the lab rat father will use her for - and she's going to get it, no matter what."

"Does your sister's foster family know about this?" Castle asked. "Are they okay with being relocated?"

"They know nothing, they're completely… _normal_ ," Miranda replied. "I'd have gone to the Illusive Man for help, but Father helped design most of Cerberus' data network before he cut ties and I'm worried he may have spy programs in our servers. It's the only way he could have tracked my movements precisely enough to find Oriana without me knowing sooner."

"I think I might be able to help with that," Castle offered, noting Kate's eye-roll. "I have... resources here on Illium that Cerberus won't have access to."

"What sort of resources?" Miranda asked.

"Let's just say I know a guy," Castle replied. "If your father is able to track your electronic footprint via Cerberus' servers, the less you know, the better. Aside from relocation and employment for the family, is there anything else you need?"

"No… that should be enough, but father is extremely persistent," Miranda replied. "I'd like to be present when they're moved… to make sure none of his agents get too close. My contact, Niket, will meet us on the cargo transfer level."

"Who is this... Niket?" Kate asked.

"Someone I trust," Miranda replied, sliding a piece of flimsy onto the table, "Meet me back here as soon as you're ready. I'll forward the information to Niket as soon as you have the arrangements in place."

"You sure we can trust this guy?" Castle asked.

"He helped me get away from my father," Miranda insisted, "he's the only person from my old life that I still trust. I cut ties with everyone else after I ran."

* * *

After a stop by Liara's office to secure her assistance in getting Oriana and her family safely off-world -which had not been easy, given the short amount of time in which to arrange a more lucrative position for Oriana's parents on a colony world deep inside Asari space – Castle and Beckett returned to the Normandy. Kate had her reservations – which she had recited to him at length – but she grudgingly agreed that bringing Thane along was their best bet. Clandestine operations were more in his wheelhouse than Jack or Grunt since Garrus – the closest thing they had to an expert on Turian tech - was busy assisting Tali with the final installation of the Thannix Cannon.

As they stepped off the ship in their battle armor and back into the Nos Astra docking bay they were once again approached by Careena, their concierge, though this time without the security escort.

"Dr T'soni has instructed me to inform you that the information you requested has been transmitted to Ms. Lawson's associate Lanteia," she noted in a cool, business-like fashion. "Both of whom are waiting for you in a private meeting room in Eternity."

"Thank you, Careena," Kate offered graciously.

"You're welcome," the relatively young Asari (though still easily older than Castle and Beckett combined) replied, "have a pleasant day."

When Kate and Rick, with Thane in tow arrived at Eternity, it was clear that Miranda had arrived only moments before them. The greeter showed them all to the private meeting room where Lanteia waited until the door slid closed and Miranda had swept the room for listening devices.

"Ms. Lawson, I'm glad you came," Lanteia offered without preamble, "we've had a complication."

"What happened?" Miranda asked, as thoroughly rattled as any of them had ever seen her. "Is Oriana all right?"

"She's safe enough for the moment," Lanteia replied, "but Niket, the contact you listed as your trusted source, contacted me with a warning that your father recently hired Eclipse mercenaries to make a sweep of the passenger transport terminals."

"That can't be good," Castle noted, ignoring the derisive snort from Thane, who did not seem terribly impressed. Their combined – albeit competing - efforts had made short work of the last Eclipse mercs they'd dealt with.

"He suggested that they might be watching for Ms. Lawson personally," Lanteia explained, "and has offered to escort Oriana's family to the terminal instead."

"I have little respect for thugs dressed in painted armor in general, but even among their ilk, Eclipse is not known for their subtlety," Thane noted. "Surely a being with the resources Miranda's father has access to could afford more discrete, skilled professionals for an operation this sensitive. There seems to be some form of deception at play here."

Castle nodded, and even Kate's body language indicated the truth in Thane's statement, but unfortunately this was Miranda's sister and for the moment they had silently agreed to defer to her judgment.

"Do you want to bring in any of your other Illium contacts, Ms. Lawson?" Lanteia asked.

"No," Miranda replied, "you and Niket are the only ones I trust on this."

"What do you have on the mercenaries?" Kate asked, trying to bring some sort of order back to the plan.

"I've confirmed that they're Eclipse," Lanteia replied, "and were hired by an organization that Ms. Lawson warned me about. I could tip off the authorities, but since this group has stayed off grid, that would only reveal that we're on to them which could prompt them to adopt a more aggressive profile."

"You made the right call," Miranda noted. "We can handle this ourselves."

"Are you absolutely sure you can trust this Niket?" Castle asked, "I agree with Thane, this whole thing smells like a setup."

"Absolutely," Miranda snapped back, irritated at the implication, "Niket is one of my oldest friends. He helped me escape from father when I ran. I'd trust him with my life."

Miranda took a deep breath then turned back to Lanteia, "Inform Niket that we'll follow his suggestion. The four of us will take a car and draw them off while he escorts Oriana and her family through the shuttle terminal. Give him full access to their itinerary as well just to be safe.

"Understood, Ms. Lawson," Lanteia replied before she gathered her jacket and swept from the room.

"So, the new plan is for us to get shot down by Eclipse while your sister gets to safety?" Kate asked. Her dislike for this new wrinkle to the plan clear in her body language.

"Eclipse will be under orders to take my sister alive," Miranda replied. "They won't risk doing anything that could kill us."

"I think it's a great plan," Castle muttered, barely disguising the sarcasm in his tone, "I seriously _love_ this plan."

"I doubt Eclipse will deploy all of their people just to stop you," Kate noted. "If you want, we could supply Niket with some backup."

Kate had the perfect sort of _"backup"_ in mind. Even a group of Asari mercenaries would think twice about attacking a snarling krogan Grunt's size, not to mention keep a close eye on their supposed "trusted source". Regardless of Miranda's assurances, there was something about her old friend Niket's convenient appearance with critical information that rubbed her the wrong way. But apparently Miranda had other ideas.

"Niket has been living here for years, he can take care of himself," Miranda replied. "Armed backup would only draw unnecessary attention to him."

"We're ready when you are, Miranda," Kate replied, "let's get this movable feast on the road."

"Thank you, Beckett…" Miranda offered with gratitude, "both of you. I hadn't planned on father involving Eclipse… but they never planned on me involving you either."

* * *

 **Two hours later**

The four of them were in an unmarked rental sky-car with Miranda at the controls when a flight of four Mantis class gunships bearing Eclipse markings dropped past them, forcing the civilian traffic to swerve around them.

"Damn it!" Miranda cursed as she too adjusted course to avoid them. "Eclipse gunships. They'll be dropping troops in the cargo terminal."

"Put us down in that cover behind them," Kate noted, pointing at a series of cargo containers. "Let's hope they really do want to take us alive."

As Miranda altered course for the cover Kate indicated, taking them directly over the Eclipse Mercs landing zone, several of the offloading mercs opening fire on the car with small arms, scoring several hits, causing it to veer off course and crash on the far side of the cargo terminal.

"Hold fire, dammit! I said hold fire!" their human sergeant shouted as he shouldered his rifle and struck out toward the downed sky-car, "I've got this."

As he came closer, Miranda approached him flanked by Castle and Beckett. Though no one could see him through his active camouflage Thane had scrambled up to the top of a stack of cargo containers. When he was in position, he unfolded his sniper rifle and used the scope to get a bird's eye view of the mercenary troop deployment which he discreetly relayed to Castle and Beckett's omni-tools.

"Since you've stopped firing," Miranda stated coldly, "I trust you know who I am."

"Yeah, Captain Enyala said you'd be in the car," he responded. "You're the bitch who kidnapped our client's little girl."

"Kidnapped?" Miranda spat with restrained anger. "This doesn't involve you. I suggest you take your men and go."

"You think you've got it all lined up, don't you?" the sergeant replied with venom. "Captain Enyala's already moving in on the kid and she knows about Niket. He won't be helping you."

"What do mean, Niket won't be helping us?" Kate asked.

"Nothing you need to be worried about," the man replied, "unless you do something stupid. You walk away now, the girl goes back to her father and everybody walks away happy."

"Everybody but my sister," Miranda spat back, "and me."

"Sounds like you're pretty far down the chain here," Kate interjected, "shouldn't we be talking to your Captain Enyala about this?"

"You don't want to talk to the Captain," he replied, "she's not as… _polite_ as I am, and she's getting paid a lot to stop you."

"She gets in my way," Miranda growled, "she'll never live to spend it."

"We're not letting you take Miranda's sister," Kate said, stepping in front of Miranda to keep her from exacerbating the situation while she waited for Thane's report.

"Captain Enyala ordered us to give you one chance to walk away," the merc sergeant threatened, "but make no mistake, my people are fully deployed and lining up targets. I say the word and we unleash hell, so I suggest you walk away quietly."

Kate inhaled a breath,but was surprised when Castle stepped into the other man's personal space with absolutely no apparent regard for the merc's tech armor, or his double strength squad setting up crew served weapons not far away.

"No, I'm giving _you_ this one chance to walk away," Castle warned darkly, his biotics flaring, "that's more than the last Eclipse squad we decimated got."

"My squad outnumbers yours five to one," the merc hissed back. "We have superior position, not to mention crew served heavy weapons, and you're _threatening_ me? Who the fuck…"

He never got to finish the sentence or say the word. With another flash of biotics, Castle snapped his neck with a violent twisting crunch, then burst forward in full biotic charge, slamming into the nearest heavy machine gun position, scattering the gun crew like bowling pins. Without skipping a beat, he snapped the heavy weapon from its tripod and opened fire with it into the other gun position annihilating that crew as well.

Though taken aback by Castle's sudden, aggressive attack, Kate recovered quickly. She drew her heavy pistol and opened fire on a cargo crane above the bulk of the merc squad, dropping the massive cargo container it was moving directly on top of them, killing five outright and scattering the rest.

"Son of a bitch!" The Salarian noncom who had been suddenly and violently promoted to squad leader spat, his new command dynamically cut in half in the span of half a second. He opened his mouth to issue orders only a nanosecond before his head was split open like an overripe melon by a sniper rifle round courtesy of Thane Krios.

With no leader to rally them, the remaining mercs were quickly and ruthlessly cut down. As Castle had warned, no quarter had been offered or given.

"Come on!" Miranda urged, pointing past the merc's former position. "If we cut through the cargo transfer floor below the docks, we might still get to Oriana ahead of them."

The only thing between them and the entrance to the cargo transfer bay was a dead eclipse merc with small hole dead center in his forehead.

"Team four, do you read?" a male voice of undetermined species crackled from the dead man's comm. Miranda walked casually toward the dead merc and picked up his transmitter.

"Hang on, I'll patch us into their comm net," Miranda noted, though it was clear she had something else entirely on her mind, "maybe we can get an idea what we're up against."

Kate could tell that Miranda was working up to something, so she waited. She'd interrogated her share of unintentional homicides in her time as a cop, many of whom wanted to confess if given the opportunity. It didn't take long before Miranda did as well.

"Beckett, I owe you an explanation," she began haltingly. "Oriana is my twin… genetically, but my father grew her when I was a teenager, after he realized he'd rendered me sterile. She was meant to replace me, but I couldn't let him do to her what he did to me, so I took her with me when I ran. She's almost a woman now."

"This sort of information is something I needed to know _before_ we started this operation," Kate stated coolly, shooting a glare in Castle's direction as well. "I don't like surprises."

"If you knew my father, you'd understand," Miranda continued. "I wasn't the first one he made, I was just the first one he… _kept._ I was brought up with no friends, pushed to meet impossible demands… I wasn't a daughter to him, I was… I don't know what I was. Oriana has had a normal life, free from his manipulations. I couldn't just leave her there. She deserved better."

"Why didn't you tell us we were saving a kid?" Castle asked.

"She's not a child, Castle," Miranda explained, "she'll be nineteen this year… well… it didn't seem relevant at the time, I suppose. There are people who would use her against me if they knew about her. Oriana's the only real family I have. I'm very protective of her. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. You're right, you deserved to know"

"If Eclipse knows where Oriana is," Thane offered, sounding genuinely sympathetic. "They will be moving on her soon. We should hurry."

"Agreed," Miranda replied, "but I'm a little worried about what the merc said. If they've gotten to Niket somehow, this is going to be harder that I planned, but according to the specs I reviewed after dinner, we'll need to cut through the cargo processing yard to circumvent the mercs and get to Oriana ahead of this Captain Enyala."

Is there a chance your father could be using Niket to get to you?" Kate asked.

"I'm sure he's tried," Miranda noted, "but NIket is one of the few people who understood why I left. I trusted him with my life when I ran. He won't betray me now."

Kate sent Thane to scout ahead. With a nod and whispered prayer to Amonkira, Lord of Hunters, Thane's active camo shimmered as he slipped into the shadows and disappeared from view. The only indication he had ever been there was the "all-clear" ping from him on her omni-tool.

With Thane running interference for them, they were able to avoid the hastily organized patrols sent to find them and make it through the cargo transfer level undetected. There had only been three mercs who'd gotten close enough for Thane to consider worth killing, which he had done swiftly and quietly before any could become a problem.

"Keep the bitch back," a voice crackled over the merc's comms, their command structure unaware they were compromised. "Niket is nearing the transport terminal. Divert everyone except my personal guard, I'll handle him and the kid personally."

Kate and Miranda exchanged a look, but kept moving.

" _Eclipse tech operatives have attempted to delay your progress by disabling the elevators,"_ Jenny reported through Kate's headset, _"I have accessed the effected systems and over-ridden their lock-down."_

As they neared the elevator, the two guards never got the chance to register their presence. Both were cleanly dispatched by Thane using his bare hands. Kate had never seen a being apply such fluid grace to the art of killing before. It was small wonder he had never failed an assignment.

"Niket has reached the terminal," the voice on the comms stated as they entered the lift. "He'll switch the family over to our transport."

"Niket?" Miranda choked out, completely stunned. "But… that can't be right."

As they stepped into the elevator and the doors slid closed, it was clear she was grasping at straws to dance around a possibility she didn't want to face.

"Maybe the captain suspects we're listening in and she's feeding us misinformation about Niket making a switch," Miranda continued, not realizing she was babbling, "Niket wouldn't do that."

Castle and Beckett nodded at each other and kept silent as Beckett selected the shuttle bay and the lift began to move, deciding it was best to keep their shared counsel and their suspicions to themselves. Thane stood in the back of the elevator silent and inscrutable his own thoughts elsewhere as the elevator slowly climbed. It didn't take long before the slow rate of ascent, or perhaps the Asari elevator music began to get to her.

"Damn it," she hissed as she hacked into the elevator controls with her omni-tool, "why won't this thing go any faster!"

In short order the elevator music sputtered out and the lift began to move a fraction faster. Though giving vent to her frustration seemed to be the most perceptible change.

"What makes you so sure Niket wouldn't turn on you?" Kate asked, before Miranda's usual reserve could settle back in.

"He could have turned on me when I first told him I was planning to run away," Miranda replied, "I'm sure father tried to buy him off more than once. If he didn't betray me then, why would he do it now?"

"Did Niket know that you took Oriana with you when you ran?" Castle asked.

"No, he only found that out recently," Miranda replied. "That was too personal to involve someone else. I never really thought about it, but maybe… no. He'd have to have understood why I did it. He knew what father put me through."

In the short time either Castle or Beckett had known Miranda they had never seen her struggle so deeply. To some degree Castle understood it. He'd been betrayed by a friend before and he'd never seen it coming either. There was no point trying to maneuver her down a path she clearly wasn't prepared to go. It only took Kate a heartbeat to come to the same realization.

"We'll find out what's really going on soon enough, damn it," Miranda noted stiffly, "as soon as I have a conversation with this Captain Enyala."

With that, silence descended upon the elevator as it rose inexorably toward the passenger level.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in the passenger terminal** :

"Listen to me," Niket said to the Asari transport officer. "I've got authorization to change their booking!"

"I'm sorry, sir," the officer replied. "We're under security lock-down. Until the situation in the cargo terminal is resolved, no passengers can be re-booked."

"This isn't worth my time Niket," Captain Enyala snapped from her place sitting on a cargo crate. "I get paid regardless of how the girl gets there."

"No!" Niket shot back, "I was told that I could handle this _my_ way. We're not traumatizing the family any more than we…"

The lift doors opened behind him, cutting him off. He turned just as the doors slid open and seemed visibly shocked when Miranda slowly walked out of the shadows.

"Miri…" He began.

"This should be fun," Enyala interjected, cutting him off as she slid down from her perch and brandished a large, Krogan-made shotgun that Grunt would have been envious of. The transport officer turned to run, but Enyala shot her down, which gave Castle, Beckett and Miranda ample time to draw their own weapons. Thane was nowhere to be seen.

Unlike the others, Miranda's machine pistol was aimed squarely at Niket's chest.

"Niket," she hissed, anger flaring in her eyes at his betrayal, "you sold me out."

"How do you want to handle this, Miranda?" Kate asked, her pistol and Castle's shotgun trained on Enyala, but Miranda ignored her.

"Why, Niket?" she asked, her voice a mix of anger and a plea. "You were my friend. You helped me get away from my father."

"Yes," Niket replied, his hands in front of him, palms out. "Because _you_ wanted to leave. That was your choice! But if I'd known you'd stolen a baby…"

"I didn't steal her!" Miranda shot back at him, the gun shaking in her hand. "I rescued her!"

"From a life of wealth and happiness?" Niket threw back at her indignantly. "You weren't saving her, you were getting back at your father!"

"How did Miranda's father turn you?" Kate asked sharply, Niket wasn't the first suspect or hostile witness she'd interrogated.

"His people told me you'd kidnapped your baby sister all those years ago." Niket offered to Miranda, "They said I could help get her back peacefully without any trauma to her host family. I told them you'd never do that. That they could go to hell. Then you finally told me what you'd done. I called him back that night."

"Why didn't you talk to _me_ , Niket?" Miranda exclaimed, her weapon still wavering. "We've been through so much. You could have at least let me explain!"

"I deserved to know that you'd stolen your sister, Miri!" Niket snapped back at her. "I deserved to know you were with Cerberus! But I had to find hear it from your father first."

"How much did Miranda's father pay you?" Kate asked, clearly in interrogation mode.

"A great deal," Niket replied, for once aiming his response at her and not Miranda.

"Damn it, Niket," Miranda choked out, a single tear escaping her control to slide down her cheek, even as her gun hand began to stabilize. "You were the only one I trusted from that life."

"He knew you felt that way," Niket replied, almost regretfully. "That's why he bought me."

"So, you just took his money." Miranda noted with almost no inflection.

"Don't get holier than thou with me, Miri," Niket hissed angrily, "You took his money for years!"

"Whether or not you agree with Miranda," Castle added, "Oriana has been with her family for years now."

"Her father can still give her a better life." Niket replied, though his conviction seemed to waver.

"You don't know what my father wants for her!" Miranda exclaimed harshly. "He wants to take a girl away from the only family she's ever known! Doesn't that tell you what he really is?"

"I knew Eclipse was willing to get their hands dirty," Kate noted, addressing Enyala for the first time., "but kidnapping a kid?"

"I'm not stealing her," Enyala shot back, her voice betraying the fact that even she didn't believe what she was saying, "I'm rescuing her. Come on, Niket, let's finish this bitch off and get out of here."

"Take your best shot," Miranda challenged.

"I was just waiting for you to finish getting dressed," Enyala replied. "Or does Cerberus really let you whore around in that catsuit?"

"If you're working for Miranda's father, that means he knows about Oriana." Kate said to Niket before turning to Miranda. "We need to find another solution."

Niket took a moment to think about what was truly going on before he replied, "Miranda's father has no information about Oriana. Neither does Eclipse. I knew you had spy programs in your father's system, Miri, so I kept it private. I'm the only one who knows."

"Which means you're the only loose end," Miranda replied, a hint of sadness in her tone as she brought her weapon back up with a firm steady hand. "This wasn't how I wanted it to end, Niket. I'm going to miss you…"

"Miranda… wait!" Castle interjected, pushing her gun away from Niket. "You don't want to do this."

"This has to end here," Miranda replied desperately, tugging her arm against Castle's grip but unable to break free. "My father will keep trying to find Oriana."

"Maybe Niket can help somehow…" Kate offered, doing her best to back Castle's play, even though his current motivations seemed a mystery to her.

"I never want to see you again, Niket…" Miranda began but was cut off by the report of a shotgun blast that echoed through the empty terminal, striking Niket in the back. He stumbled forward a few steps from the concussion of the hit, collapsed to his knees then fell face first to the deck. Anything else he might have said reduced to a low gurgling sound.

"Done," Enyala stated, the barrel of her shotgun smoking as Niket bled out on the deck. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a shipment to deliver."

"You'll die for that, bitch!" Miranda's biotics flared as she tugged Enyala ten feet into the air, then sent her flying across the terminal into the far wall.

Seconds later the bulk of Enyala's Eclipse mercs swarmed into the bay. Two of the lead mercenaries heads exploded, which slowed the advance and forced them to scramble for cover. Apparently Thane had not been idle during the standoff and had found an advantageous sniper perch from which to provide overwatch.

Kate and Miranda dove for cover and opened fire, dropping anyone who was foolish enough to pop out of cover, while Castle charged in to engage Enyala. Of all of them he had the best shot at taking out the Eclipse captain at close quarters. Though Miranda's biotics were impressive and quite likely more powerful than his, she lacked the heavy armor to directly engage an Asari commando in the middle of a firefight, whereas Castle was an Alliance Marine biotic vanguard, properly outfitted and trained specifically for this mission profile.

Enyala was good, but she had not expected the ferocity of Castle's charge into her personal space. Though it ran counter to his chivalrous nature when it came to women, Enyala likely had a hundred or more years of combat experience on him, so he knew he couldn't offer her any quarter.

After slamming into her with his third biotic charge, he finally exhausted her barriers and the concussive force sent her sprawling to the deck. Before she could recover and reset her barriers, he pressed the barrel of his assault rifle to the center of her chest armor and triggered a ten round burst of armor piercing incendiary. Her body jerked reflexively as she was cooked from the inside, but Castle was already on the move again.

The sight of a human putting their commander down hard took the stuffing out of the rest of the Eclipse mercs, who were not accustomed to being routed by a force they outnumbered five to one. Those who did not retreat, were quickly cut to pieces.

"There could be more Eclipse mercs near the shuttle," Miranda noted, breathing heavily, "I need to make sure Oriana and her family get aboard safely."

As they boarded the elevator to the passenger transit level, it was clear that she felt both troubled and conflicted.

"I can't believe Niket sold me out," she muttered, "I didn't even see it coming. I should have.

"Even with all of your upgrades," Kate replied gently, "you're human, just like the rest of us."

"But I let it get personal," Miranda replied, not quite done kicking herself, "and I nearly screwed everything up."

"Why didn't you let me kill him?" she snapped, her self loathing turning to a flash of anger at Castle. "I could have lived with that… but having to watch him be gunned down by that asari bitch."

"He may have betrayed you, but you still cared for him," Castle replied, "trust me, you would have regretted it."

"You're right," Miranda sighed, turning to face the back of the lift, her head bowed, hiding behind her hair so they couldn't see the tears welling in her eyes, Castle's intent lost in the moment. "I cared for him, enough to cloud my judgment… and my father knew it. He used that against me. It had always been like that with him. Father gave me anything I ever wanted, but there was always a hook, an angle for his long-term plan. When I found out what that plan was… what he intended for Oriana…"

She paused for a moment, to gather herself, then said, "I threw away everything he ever gave me when I ran… except Niket. A weakness on my part, I guess."

"You can't toss aside everything you care about just to be safe," Castle replied, thinking of his own child. His hands reflexively clenching into fists over and over, wanting to hunt Miranda's father down and squeeze his neck till his eyes bugged out.

"It's okay, Castle," Miranda whispered, for once guessing his intent correctly. "My father hurt me, but he didn't break me. As much as he tried to turn me into exactly what he wanted… I'm my own person."

"Any other old friends your father might use against you?" Kate asked. She thought she'd feel smug that she'd been right about Niket all along, but all she felt was regret that he'd been a pawn to force Miranda to go another round with the father who had abused her.

"No," Miranda replied softly as she regarded Castle and Beckett with new insight, "I cut ties with everyone else. Anyone I'm close to now works for Cerberus… or you. My father's powerful and connected, but even he won't cross the Illusive Man."

"You still have Oriana," Kate replied.

"My father didn't give her to me," Miranda corrected. "I rescued her… but… yes, I still have something. Thank you."

* * *

When they stepped off the elevator, Miranda and Thane split off, did a cursory inspection of the reception area and found nothing out of the ordinary. If there had been any mercs on that level, it was clear that without support, they had bugged out.

A short time later, Miranda returned to where Castle and Beckett were standing.

"No sign of eclipse," Miranda reported. "It looks like we're clear."

Miranda fell silent for a moment, staring out into the crowded spaceport. Both Castle and Beckett followed her line of sight to a much younger woman, who strongly resembled her.

"There she is," Miranda breathed, genuinely overwhelmed with emotion. "She's safe… with her family."

Kate waited patiently, wishing she could one day have a moment like this, but knowing it would never be.

"Come on," Miranda noted shakily, "we should go."

"Don't you even want to say hello?" Kate asked.

"It's not 'bout what I want," Miranda replied, though it was clear that's exactly what she wanted. "It's about what's best for her. The less she knows about me, the better. She's got a family. A life. I'll only complicate that for her."

"She doesn't need all the details," Castle urged, "but would it really be so bad for her to know she has a sister who loves her?"

Miranda thought about what Castle and Beckett said, a small war going on behind her perfectly engineered eyes. "I guess not.'

"Go on," Kate offered, "we'll wait here."

Miranda paused for only a moment, her eyes drawn to the sister, for whom she knew she would sacrifice her entire world to protect and then slowly walked toward them. Halfway there, Oriana turned and recognized her almost immediately.

Kate leaned into Rick as they watched Miranda and her sister talk, though they could hear nothing of their conversation. A short time later, Miranda returned, and they stepped back onto the lift back up to the docking level, her eyes locked with her sister's sharing a moment before the doors closed.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** See? I told you I would get back to this one. It just took me a little longer than I expected. I got a little too much Mass Effect 3 in my head playing havoc with story continuity. Though I think I might go a bit more light hearted in the next chapter.**_

 _ **Perhaps a heist?**_

 _ **I would also like to thank my Beta, Cofkett for her assistance, which was invaluable.**_


	14. Eye of the Beholder pt 1

**Chapter Fourteen  
Eye of the Beholder pt. 1**

* * *

" _So if you're lost and on your own  
You can never surrender.  
And if your path won't lead you home  
You can never surrender."  
_Corey Hart "Never Surrender"

* * *

Shortly after their return to the Normandy, Castle received what - by all outward appearances - was a priority communique from Councilor Montgomery, which Kate knew he could not ignore. She was, however, admittedly perplexed when he was directed to seek out an alliance asset in Nos Astra _and_ directed to bring her along.

She knew perfectly well what Castle's _official_ assignment likely was. His eyes clouded over and he either deflected her inquiry with humor or changed the subject altogether whenever she asked him about it. She was also fully aware that she was persona non grata in Alliance space, her active Spectre status the only thing keeping the Navy brass from putting out an arrest warrant on her given her current ties.

Kate became slightly less perplexed when said "asset" turned out to be Liara T'Soni, the new Shadow Broker. It still irked her that Castle had kept that tidbit of information to himself for as long as he did, though given all of the listening devices on the Normandy she couldn't really fault him for that… which irked her even more.

"As much as I would have preferred to invite you to my office directly," Liara noted when they walked into her inner sanctum, "I'm pretty sure the Illusive Man would take issue with you coming to see me."

"I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it for myself," Kate replied, "but being the head of one of the largest and most clandestine information gathering network in the known galaxy seems to suit you."

"Yes," Liara agreed. "Apparently the worlds of political intrigue and archaeology are quite similar, except that the bodies still smell."

Kate rolled her eyes at Castle's smirk, but Liara cleared her throat.

"As fascinating as your usual round of eye-sex with Richard might be, we should get to the reason I asked you here in such an… indirect fashion. I need a favor, one that I would prefer not get back to the Illusive Man."

"Okay," Kate replied, thankful her battle armor covered the blush rising up her neck, though it was clear that Liara found talking about Castle in front of her uncomfortable – especially with him in the room – "Let's hear it."

"One of the more recent operatives I have acquired since becoming the Broker has requested backup," Liara replied, "and I need somebody I can trust to be both capable and discreet."

"Who is this operative?" Kate asked, aware that the sort of people who usually became agents of the Shadow Broker tended to be less than reputable. She would have enough to explain to Alliance Command if she wanted to avoid a general court martial when this whole mess was over as it was. Getting tied to both Cerberus _and_ the Shadow Broker would definitely complicate matters... even if it was Liara.

"Not the sort of person you are expecting," Liara supplied, sliding a data flimsy across her desk to Kate. "Her name is Serena Kaye, a specialist in the retrieval of stolen art and antiquities. According to my files, she had quite the career as an art thief in her own right, but a short stint in a Turian prison put her on what you humans call the 'straight and narrow'. She has become rather paranoid of late and insists on meeting you in person on the Citadel before she will reveal any further details. I would appreciate it if you would help clear this up. She is the best in the business at her line of work, I need her focused and out there retrieving Prothean artifacts which are unlawfully in private hands."

"All right," Kate noted, "I'll look into it. As soon as Tali is finished upgrading Normandy's systems I'll set course for the Citadel."

* * *

 **Two days later:  
Citadel, Zakera Ward**

With the upgrades to the Normandy's completed and the Thannix Cannon once again fully installed and calibrated to both Tali and Garrus' satisfaction, they made it to the Citadel in record time. As a reward for their swift resolution to both technical issues, Kate decided that Garrus and Tali would join them on the Citadel for a little "fresh air", though the two seemed to spend a large portion of their time bickering like small children.

The contact information Liara had given them for Serena Kaye had been incomplete, especially by the standards of Shadow Broker Intel, leaving Castle and Beckett to search for any sort of clue she may have left behind to indicate her whereabouts. Though that search ground to a halt shortly after they turned a corner in the markets.

"This clanless is a thief," a volus gasped through his exo suit's audio filter, "and I want her arrested."

"I was just walking by!" a young quarian shot back to the C-Sec officer taking the Volus' statement.

"What's going on here?" Kate asked while Castle did his best to keep Tali from escalating the situation in her desire to help.

"Sorry, Ma'am," the C-Sec officer replied, "I'm trying to take a statement here."

"There's nothing to… talk about." The volus insisted, "She stole my credit chit! Arrest her!"

"I did not!" The young quarian exclaimed indignantly in that tone almost exclusively the domain of the young. "Just because I'm a quarian!"

"I need you to stop for a moment and take a deep breath..." the C-Sec officer began but the volus cut him off.

"You're... mocking me... Earth-clan..." the volus gasped, "just because the Vol-clan need..."

"That was a poor choice of words, sir," the officer backpedaled, "I apologize."

Before any of them could speak further Beckett -being an experienced investigator- stepped in and took over, much to the C-Sec officer's chagrin.

"You say, you're being falsely accused... miss..."

"Lia'Vael," she offered before answering the question. "I was on my way to the used ship dealer when this volus ran into me outside the Sirta Foundation. He didn't stop, or say he was sorry, then a minute later he comes back with C-Sec accusing me of stealing his damn credit chit!"

"You ran into each other outside the Sirta Foundation," Kate replied, "is it possible it fell out of his pocket there?"

"I guess," Lia remarked. "I know _I_ didn't take it."

"You spend a lot of time at the used ship dealer?" Castle asked, generating an eye-roll from Kate. As well-grounded as he was, he was still a sucker for a sob story, which she secretly found endearing, but she'd never tell him that.

"Yeah," Lia replied almost sadly, "they have a lot of nice models. I'd like to buy one and take it back to the fleet, but..."

"Your pilgrimage isn't going so well, is it?" Tali asked consolingly. She remembered clearly just how rough the Citadel could be to someone so young and all alone. Had she not run into Castle and Beckett way back when, she might still be out here herself.

"No," Via replied dejectedly. "I... I came here thinking there'd be a lot of work, EVA stuff, salvage maybe. I wanted to help fix the damage the geth caused."

Lia sighed and shrugged her shoulders then continued sounding like she was about to cry.

"But everywhere I went, signs said _'not hiring quarians',_ other people would give me mean looks.

"You say she stole your credit chit?" Kate asked the volus, hoping to give Lia time to compose herself.

"She must have," the volus wheezed. "When I... left the Sirta Foundation store... she ran right into me. That's how pickpockets... work isn't it? They bump into you... and use that as a cover to rifle your pockets."

He snorted in Lia's direction, "You can't trust these… clanless quarians. Thieves, all of them!"

"Quarians are only forced to steal," Tali interjected angrily, "when bigots like you won't give us real jobs."

"And to think my taxes... pay to support you here," the volus shot back, leaning into Tali and pointing a finger at her, the top of his head barely reaching her waist, "go back to your... fleet, clanless!"

"I am clan Zorah," Tali retorted, pushing the volus away from her, "crew of the starship Normandy and _you_ are an idiot."

"Don't let him bait you," Castle interjected, doing his best to keep his own rising anger under control, "this asshole isn't worth it."

"My brain agrees with you, Castle," Tali replied darkly, "my gut, however wants me to jack his suit's olfactory filters so that everything smells like raw sewage."

"Are you sure you didn't leave your chit at the Sirta Foundation?" Kate asked, going back to her line of questioning.

"Of course... not!" the volus wheezed. "Do you think I would make... a mistake like that? I didn't even… buy anything there. The chit stayed in my pocket."

"Any idea who is telling you the truth?" Garrus asked the officer. As a former C-Sec agent, himself, he wasn't sure he liked the apparent rush to judgment by the human officer in front of them.

"My omni-tool can tell that the quarian doesn't have the chit on her," the officer replied, clearly recognizing Garrus from C-Sec files and hoping for more understanding from a former Citadel cop, "but she could have stashed it to retrieve later… you know what quarians are like. She's definitely a vagrant, though, I'll run her in and see what Hunt wants me to do."

"I'm going to look into this." Kate announced. "You have only this volus' word she stole anything, with no evidence to back up his claims, but you're gonna run her in anyway?"

"This is a C-Sec matter," The officer stated sternly, "we'll do..."

"Bah!" the volus interrupted, but fell silent after a glare from Kate that could melt through dreadnought hull armor.

"...All we can to resolve this." he continued, his condescending attitude clearly on display. "We don't need civilians getting involved. If you do happen to find his credit chit, please let one of our officers know."

As the C-Sec officer walked away with the Lia'Vael in tow and the volus hobbling behind, which left a conundrum in their wake.

"Kate," Castle implored, "we can't just let that kid get railroaded like that, we have to do something."

"I know Castle," Kate replied, "but without evidence one way or the other, what are we supposed to do, mount a jailbreak?"

Before the conversation could go much farther than Castle shooting her a puppy dog pout, a free-standing advertisement ceased hawking Francis Kitt's fouteen hour long all Elcor version of Hamlet and switched to a visual representation of a statuesque blonde human female.

"Captain Beckett, please enter your password to receive a free gift."

Kate stopped short and approached the advertisement warily.

"What the hell is going on?" she muttered.

"Please tell me your password, Captain Beckett," The woman in the advertisement replied.

"Silence is golden," Kate muttered, recalling the password from Liara's data flimsy.

"Good to finally meet you, Captain," the woman on the screen replied, suddenly becoming much more animated than an advertisement VI interface. "Serena Kaye, I'm a fan of your husband's novels."

"I thought you needed my help," Kate replied, not thrilled in the least. "What's with the password and all the sneaking around? How much trouble are you in?"

"I had to make sure you were legit." Serena replied, "I've been watching you since your ship docked and I have no doubts now. You're the real thing."

"What makes you so sure?" Kate asked, tired of being scanned and prodded.

"There's a certain… aura about you, like you've seen things nobody else has," Serena offered, giving Castle a once over that made him a little uncomfortable. "Given what Liara told me about your husband I'm sure he's seen it as well. Even though I didn't know what you'd look like, I knew it was really you."

"You aren't concerned that I'm working with Cerberus?" Kate asked.

"I'm not a cop," Serena noted with a shrug, "and considering I'm involved with the Shadow Broker, I'm not sure that I'm necessarily in a position to judge. Glass houses and stones and all that."

"Can we get down to business here?" Kate asked.

"Of course," Serena replied, "there's a job I need help with, something that requires a bit more finesse than the Shadow Broker's usual muscle."

Castle couldn't help the derisive snort. He trusted Liara with his life, but he'd faced down and decimated the Shadow Broker's _"usual muscle"_ and couldn't help but agree. Considering that they had been perfectly willing to blow up an entire office building to kill three people, finesse of any kind was clearly not in their wheelhouse.

"I've made transportation arrangements to Bekenstein and gone to the trouble to purchase evening wear for the two of you. I'll explain everything once we get under way."

"You are aware that I just happen to have a ship of my own, right?" Kate noted.

"Of course," Serena noted, "I am also keenly aware that your ship was bought and paid for by Cerberus and has so many audio and video recording devices aboard that the Illusive Man probably knows your menstrual cycle as well as you do. I would prefer keep my name and likeness _off_ of Cerberus databases of Shadow Broker operatives, so yeah, I'll pass."

Though Kate glared harshly at Serena for that remark, she couldn't exactly refute her reasoning either. She may not _like_ the abrasive blonde much - especially the way her eyes lingered on Castle's behind just a little too long for her liking - but she had a point.

"Okay," Kate grumbled, testily "we'll do it your way."

"Good," Serena replied, "meet me at the Citadel transit station this time tomorrow, I look forward to working with you."

The advertisement suddenly shifted back to it's previous setting and Serena's voice could be heard from a catwalk above them.

"You two look a little silly talking to an advertisement," she said. Then changed subjects. "Oh, I asked around, by the way, the volus left his credit chit at Saronis Applications. The clerk there is holding it behind the counter. See you tomorrow, Captain."

* * *

By the time Castle and Beckett arrived at the Zakera Ward C-Sec precinct, the officer was processing Lia'Vael into the system under the volus' charges of theft, which did not endear him at all to Beckett, or to Garrus for that matter.

"The volus forgot his credit chit at Saronis applications," Kate announced for all the precinct to hear. "The clerk there is holding it."

It took a moment for the shock to wear off, but the volus was the first to speak.

"Well," he wheezed, "the quarian _could_ have taken it."

"Okay," the arresting officer stated testily, "I'll close this event report then and release the quarian."

He turned and glared squarely at Lia'Vael, irritated at being deprived a of a collar.

"I'll be watching you," he warned, "get a permanent residence or I'll haul you back in here for vagrancy."

"Are you two _serious?_ " Kate asked angrily, not caring how many turned to stare at her.

"What…" the volus began, but she cut him off with another armor-rending glare, before she knelt down to his face mask level.

"You _falsely_ accused this girl of stealing from you and all you have to say for yourself now is that she _could_ have stolen it?"

"Now just a…" the volus tried again, but Kate shoved him back none to kindly, nearly pitching him over backwards before he could finish gasping out his protest. Without skipping a beat, she rose back to her full height and rounded on the C-Sec officer, pinning him in place with a smoldering glare that even had Castle taking a step back.

"And you," she barked angrily at the officer like a drill instructor on the first day of boot camp, poking her finger into his chest to punctuate every point until he was backed into the wall. "This girl gets harassed and insulted by that asshole and you throw in a threat to arrest her for vagrancy? Did you even bother to take down her name?"

"How about I run _you_ in for assaulting an officer and obstruction of justice?" The officer replied after he screwed on his courage.

"Do you honestly think you're going to _"run in"_ a Spectre?" Kate growled, "I could literally shoot both of you right here and nobody on this station would bat an eyelash. I won't, but get the hell out of my sight, _both_ of you, before I change my mind!"

"Son of a…" the officer grumbled, but turned and stomped out of the precinct, as did the volus to a muted round of slow clapping from most of the people in the room – including some of the officers. Apparently, the officer in question was an equal opportunity asshole.

"Thank you," Lia'Vael whispered, embarrassed by all the scrutiny. "I wish I could offer you more than words."

"Can you take care of yourself from here?" Kate asked.

"I guess," Lia replied, looking down at the shoes of her exo-suit. "Most nights I eat nutrient paste at a turian shelter, but I'm surviving."

"Good luck on your pilgrimage, Lia'Vael," Tali offered, "Keelah Selai."

"Thanks," Lia replied.

Kate and the others made their way to the exit, but when she turned back, she saw Castle handing the young quarian what looked like a business card and gesticulating as if giving her directions. Though Tali was forbidden by quarian law from directly helping her, apparently her husband felt no such compunction.

"You coming, Castle?" Kate asked, and he jogged to catch up, noting that he was doing something on his omni-tool."

Kate didn't ask, but clearly, she'd been "not asking" very loudly.

"I gave her mother's card," Castle offered. "She told me in her last vid-mail she needed to hire a technical assistant for her acting school. If Lia's half as good as Tali, she'll work out just fine. It should get her off the street, anyway. I also gave her the name of my lawyer in case either of those idiots keep harassing her."

The search parameter screen for the used ship dealer on his omni-tool did not go unnoticed, but Kate pretended not to see it. Sometimes, her husband's generous streak still snuck up on her. She was quite certain that as soon as the space-lanes were safe from the collectors, Lia'Vael's pilgrimage would be coming to an end.

* * *

 ** _**Author's Note** I was originally gonna do the heist along with this, but this was long enough and ended on a good point to leave things. The heist is going to be long enough to do on its own. This had enough of a feel-good romp to lighten the mood a bit._**


	15. Eye of the Beholder pt2

**Chapter Fifteen  
Eye of the Beholder pt. 2**

* * *

" _Cos you've got a secret don't ya babe?  
Yeah you, you got a secret don't ya babe?  
And I should know, yeah I should know"  
_Missy Elliot: "Secret"

* * *

Among Earth's early colonization efforts after entering the Galactic community prior to expanding into the Attican Traverse, Beckenstein had been envisioned as the Earth System Alliance's off-planet manufacturing hub, ingratiating humanity into galactic culture by locally producing needed goods for the Citadel. After meeting with mixed success during its early years, (due to competition from the Volus and the Batarian Hegemony) Bekenstein leapfrogged its competition by switching gears to produce high-quality luxury goods for direct entry into the galactic market via the Citadel.

Within a decade afterward, Bekenstein thrived and eventually became known as "Humanity's Illium," a place where few humans of limited wealth could afford to live and the nouveau riche of humanity emigrated to in order to flaunt their newly acquired wealth. Castle had visited the colony one or twice with his mother as a child and hated the place with a passion.

Liara T'Soni had booked them passage on an asari luxury liner out of Illium under the assumed names of Lola Banks, Solomon Gunn and their personal assistant Selina Kyle. To maintain the ruse that they had been on the liner since it left Nos Astra, she had sent doubles that Kate had to admit looked pretty convincing when she and Castle had passed them on their way through the Citadel's transit terminal.

Using her influence and near bottomless resources as the Shadow Broker, Liara had paid enough bribes to the right people to make sure their carry-on baggage was neither scanned nor searched and their accommodations were high end, affording them an even greater level of privacy and comfort which Kate and Rick were more than happy to take advantage of. Once the privacy lock had been set on their stateroom door, neither Serena, or anyone else – with the exception of room service- saw hide nor hair of them for the entire trip.

Beckenstein's star system was a three day cruise, even at FTL speeds, including a one-day layover to discharge the drive core at a very scenic locale. Neither Castle nor Beckett paid it much notice, however. They were too busy breaking in all of the luxurious amenities their stateroom had to offer reenacting their honeymoon, taking full advantage of an extended trip away from the Normandy's suite of intrusive security cameras. (The idea of putting on a show for the Illusive Man tended to kill even the most amorous mood)

Kate and Rick, had risen from bed only recently -sex hair and all - and barely finished their breakfast when Serena Kaye unceremoniously showed up at their door, dressed primly in a black pinstripe pantsuit, snatching the cup of coffee from out of Castle's hand before he could give it to Kate as she sat down at the table, which did not endear her to Kate in the least.

After a brief silence during which Kate seriously contemplated murder by strangulation, a fresh cup appeared next to her plate and Castle cleared his throat.

"Okay, as much as Kate and I loved the three day weekend, lets get down to business," Castle offered, giving Kate ample time to sip her coffee and work the desire to strangle Serena till her eyes bugged out, out of her system. "Why are we here?"

"We're here to recover something very important to me from a gangster named Travis Coonan." Serena replied, pretending not to notice the effect of her coffee snatch. Liara had warned her not to interfere with their morning coffee ritual, but she never responded well to being told _not_ to do something."

"What do you know about him," Kate asked brusquely.

"Mr. Coonan is a _'well respected businessman'_ on Beckenstein," Serena began, her tone laced with a trace of venom. "His mansion's famous for being nearly impossible to crack, but I have a way in I think you'll love."

"What exactly are we after?" Kate asked.

"My former partner's graybox," Serena replied.

"I assume this graybox is some sort of hardware?" Castle asked. He recalled reading about a scandal surrounding such devices that took place when he was a child while he was researching one of his books but had turned up few details.

"It's a neural implant originally designed to assist people with Altzheimers disease, but it was rendered illegal in alliance space when some of its more… illicit uses came to light. My former partner, Keji Okuda used his to store not only his memories and thoughts, but also secret codes and all sorts of illicit information. We worked together for a long time when I was active. I'd hoped to help him go legit… before Coonan had him killed."

"Tell me about him," Kate asked and for a moment Serena seemed to brighten.

"Keji Okuda was the best hacker, tech specialist and multi-story entry man I'd ever worked with." Serena practically gushed, but then sobered. "We lost track of each other shortly after I went to prison, but he contacted me a few weeks ago to ask me how to get in touch with the Shadow Broker. Apparently, he'd slipped up… stole something he shouldn't have. Whatever he'd found was bad. From what little he told me, it was something that could spark an interstellar war if it got out. It's what got him killed."

"What could he have found that was so bad?" Kate asked.

"He wouldn't give me any details," Serena replied nervously, "Knowing him, he would have heavily encrypted the data to keep it away from Coonan. To access it, you'd need the encryption key for his graybox and an understanding of his filing system to know what to look for. Other than the information he died for, the memories he stored of all the time we spent together are all that's left of him."

"I can understand why you'd want to get it back," Castle noted, with a little more empathy than Kate was comfortable with.

"Getting it back from Coonan will be easier with your help." Serena replied hopefully.

"We'll get it done." Kate stated almost testily, shooting Castle an eye-roll.

"It'll be fun," Serena promised, her snarky façade back in place, "and if we're lucky, you won't even have to draw your guns."

"Given all the trouble that's been taken to reinforce our cover identities," Kate noted, setting her irritation with Serena aside for the time being, "I assume we have them for a reason?"

"Of course," Serena noted, "You and your husband run a small band of mercenaries out in the Terminus Systems – precisely the sort of people Coonan respects. I took the liberty of giving the two of you a reputation. Papers, witnesses, an article in 'Badass Weekly', just don't start talking business with him and you'll be fine."

Castle and Beckett exchanged a look between them, clearly noting without speaking a word that Serena Kaye had no idea that Castle had been undercover in the Terminus Systems for over a year and a half and was likely better able to "talk shop" on the subject than Serena or even Kate herself could.

"What more can you tell us about Coonan?" Kate asked.

"Travis Coonan is an arms dealer, smuggler, and part time information broker who'd hired Keiji to steal weapons schematics and patrol data from the Alliance," Serena noted dryly. "Aside from the fact that he killed Keiji and stole his graybox, he's not such a bad guy. Rich, charismatic, cultured, willing to crack open a man's skull to get at the neural implants inside…"

"I take it that Liara packed us evening wear for a reason?" Kate interrupted. The blood red dress she'd found hanging in a garment bag for her had taken her aback when she first saw it. She hadn't worn a dress like that since her days going undercover for vice. If Serena thought she was gonna pose as a prostitute and come on to Coonan, she had another thing coming.

"You two would look _really_ out of place at a society party in battle armor," Serena replied candidly. "I saw pictures of your wedding, you two will look great. Coonan is throwing his birthday party and he's invited his closest friends and associates: A couple dozen of the worst liars, cheaters and mass murderers you'd ever want to meet. All of whom will be bringing gifts as a tribute to the man who helped make them all rich."

"What will we be bringing?" Castle asked almost too eagerly, earning him another eye-roll from Kate.

"Our present," Serena explained "is a life sized bronze statue of your old friend Saren Arterius, rendered in full, loving detail, it's base filled to the top with your weapons and armor. You can keep your pistols, as long as they're concealed, his guards won't hassle you over sidearms. Once inside, we'll make our way to Coonan's vault door concealed somewhere in the back of the ballroom. I'll case the security and start peeling back the layers, while the two of you keep up appearances at the party. When we're ready to make our move, the statue will be in the vault ready for you two to arm up and we'll take back Keiji's graybox. The secret he died for will be safe and I'll finally have a chance to say goodbye."

"You really worked hard on this," Castle noted sympathetically, which made Kate want to kick him under the table, "he must have meant a lot to you."

"Was I that obvious?" Serena asked, not used to being read so easily. "Aside from the secret he stole, Keiji's graybox holds a lot of priceless, personal memories… all that's left of who he was. But make no mistake, the secret he stole is very real and potentially dangerous to the Alliance. He didn't give me any details, but withholding that information from Coonan got him killed. I doubt Liara would have allowed me to interrupt your own mission if it wasn't absolutely important."

* * *

 **The Following Day**

"This is our stop," Serena noted as the skycar came to a landing outside of Travis Coonan's palatial estate followed by the flatbed cargo carrier carrying the statue of Saren. Kate couldn't help but give a low whistle at the size of the estate complex. This wasn't anything like Castle's understated, homey vacation house on Elysium, it was more like a small town surrounding a massive mansion. It was impressive, but also a little tacky in her opinion.

When the doors and roof of the skycar popped open she had to remind herself to allow Serena to get out first and extend a hand. She stepped out in a blood red, knee-length sheath dress of very expensive silk that covered all of her surgical scars, but fit her like a second skin, accentuating her lean, muscular frame and accentuating all of her curves.. She had felt Castle's eyes wander every inch of the fabric when he'd first seen her in and her matching four inch strappy heels. She'd had almost the same reaction to how good her husband looked in a properly cut Armani suit with accents that matched her dress. Even Serena had to admit to herself that they made quite the couple – and quite an entrance.

"After you, Ms. Banks, Mr Gunn," Serena stated, once she found her voice again.

Before they could turn toward the house, however, a guard in black dress armor bearing the symbol of the Eclipse Mercenary Company turned from his omni-tool scan of the statue.

"Hold on a moment, ma'am," He stated in a brusque, but polite tone, "there seems to be a problem."

Travis Coonan stepped out of the house, clearly alerted by an issue at the gate, even with the dress cane he cut quite the dashing figure – if Irish gangster was your thing. Clearly the Westies hadn't died out as the NYPD once believed, only moved off-world.

"Is there a problem here?" Coonan asked.

"No sir, Mr Coonan," the guard replied, still waving his omni-tool over the base of the statue, "just performing a scan."

"I don't believe we've met," Coonan greeted, turning toward the couple, his eyes doing a quick up and down scan of Kate's curves.

"Lola Banks," Kate replied, ignoring the fact that it took Coonan's eyes marginally longer to reach hers. "This is my husband and business partner, Solomon Gunn."

"A pleasure," Castle added, putting on his best _'meet and greet'_ smile and extending his hand, which went unreciprocated, which he then returned to his side awkwardly.

"Sir," the guard interrupted, "the scanners aren't picking up anything."

"Hmm," Coonan noted, examining the bronze statue of Saren for the first time. His organization had encountered the Spectre on more than one occasion, costing him a lot of grief, loyal employees and credits. He and his associates had celebrated the troublesome Turian's passing and the ruin of his reputation with more than one "nip o' the pure". All things being considered, he thought it an inspired choice for a new guest to one of his social events. "I don't think our guests would come all the way here from Illium just to start trouble, do you?"

Coonan didn't wait for the guard to shrug in agreement before he turned back to Kate.

"You and your husband may pass through, Ms. Banks, as you are on the guest list. I will have to ask that your assistant remain outside, though. Refreshments will be provided of course. You understand, I hope."

"If it makes you feel more secure," Kate replied as graciously as circumstances would allow, "of course she can wait outside."

"Good to see we aren't going to have a problem," Coonan offered with a nod of noblesse oblige. "Enjoy the party, I hope to see you again inside."

After Coonan returned up the stairs from whence he came and disappeared back into the house, Castle and Beckett turned back to Serena.

"Well that didn't go as I expected," she offered.

"Any idea why he'd turn you away?" Castle asked.

"None that I can think of," Serena replied, "he's never met me in person, he hired Keiji a year after I went to prison. Very few people aside from Keiji knew me by more than reputation. Since I got out and went into the art reclamation business, I've been really careful about keeping my name and likeness off the grid."

"He could just be covering his ass," Kate noted, "can't really blame him, I guess."

"What happens now?" Castle asked.

"We move forward," Serena replied without skipping a beat, "you two will just have to do all the talking. I'll stay out of sight and stick with you the best I can. I'd have had to slip away at some point to do my thing anyway. Keep in touch in case anything else goes wrong though."

Before either Castle or Beckett could respond, Serena turned back toward the car and shimmered slowly out of sight as her active camo engaged. Castle turned back toward the staircase leading up into the mansion and offered his arm, which Kate accepted and they climbed the steps into the mansion.

Upon entry, they were announced as if arriving to meet royalty. Kate snagged two flutes of champagne from a passing server and handed one to Castle as they worked their way through the room. Castle grinned slightly when among the snippets of conversation they overheard from partygoers was how _'Zaeed Massani had taken out Archangel on Omega and claimed the bounty from the Blue Suns.'_ It was gratifying to learn his cover in the Terminus hadn't been blown.

" _We need to find the vault door and case the security,"_ Serena's disembodied voice stated over their secure comms. _"We'll be able to figure out what do next then."_

The two of them continued to work their way through the partygoers in various stages of sobriety toward the back of the ballroom into first a small library containing more ancient first edition books than Castle had ever laid eyes on in one place and he was a collector himself. From there, they passed through a small art gallery. After a short perusal of Coonan's art collection – many of which Serena confirmed were stolen- they reached an obscure corner stairwell that led down into a service corridor with a poorly concealed door at the halfway point.

Castle made a few adjustments with his omni-tool and the door slid open silently to admit them.

As soon as the door slid closed behind them, Serena shimmered back into view, having shed her business attire for a black stealth body stocking and a hood covering her hair.

"Very nice setup," Serena noted after studying the security on the vault entrance door. "there's more here than I expected.

Kate pretended to ignore Serena's critique of the vault security as she glared at the statue of Saren in the corner. She knew the disgraced former Spectre was dead, he'd blown his own brains out right in front of her, but it still gave her the creeps.

"Password protected voice-lock, Kinetic barrier," Serena droned on, sounding impressed, "DNA scanner… looks like an EX-700 series. Everything a respectable crime-lord's vault needs to be impenetrable."

"This gonna be a problem?" Castle asked, a bit more attentive than Kate would have liked.

"Please, remember who you're talking to." Serena rebuked sarcastically. "Keiji could crack a setup like this in his sleep… and I'm better. We'll need a voice sample for the voice lock – you'll have to chat up Coonan for that. DNA? Child's play. We should find plenty of it and his password in his private quarters, I imagine. The barrier? Cut the power… never fails. I'll track that down and deal with it while you two get Coonan talking. See if you can find a way to get into the private residence too, while you're at it."

"You coming, Castle?" Kate said as she waited by the door, "we need to get that voice sample from Coonan. Time to turn on that Castle charm on this one."

* * *

 **A short time later**

"Mr. Gunn, Ms. Banks," Travis Coonan greeted as they approached, this time extending his hand to shake Castle's, then bowing to kiss Kate's hand, clearly well into his cups by this point. "It's good to see you both again. I hope that scene at the door hasn't soured your evening."

"I can relate," Castle replied, "there's always somebody gunning for people like us."

"Hah! Yes," Coonan replied, "isn't that the truth. I'm glad you understand."

"Frankly," Kate added, "I'm surprised your security isn't tighter. It's a ballsy move opening your doors like this."

"Yes, I suppose it is," Coonan noted pensively, clearly having answered this question before. "Hopefully it sends the message that I'm not afraid of anyone stupid enough to step up to me in my own backyard."

Coonan snatched a flute of champagne from a passing server, then launched into a speech that had clearly been prepared for the occasion.

"Most people these days crave comfort, entertainment, love. They don't want to see that the galaxy is fragile. They only have to worry about simple luxuries. Why? Because people like me… and you are in the shadows, doing the dirty work that keeps the galaxy spinning."

Coonan turned to address the crowd gathering around, who had similarly refreshed their drinks, clearly in anticipation of a toast.

"Today may be _my_ birthday," Coonan began, raising his glass and his voice, "but this party is for all of us… the cleaners! The support structure for the galaxy's rose colored delusions of peace. May there _always_ be a market for the things we do!"

The assembled guests who'd gathered around raised their glasses, clinked them together and drank to his toast.

"Enjoy the party, Mr. Gunn, Ms. Banks," Conan offered, before moving away to mingle with his other guests.

"I said get him talking, Castle," Kate remarked with an impish grin, "and you definitely got him talking."

" _I was able to get into their comm room,"_ Serena interrupted over their earpieces, _"The guards on duty are taking a little nap. I'm tapped into their secure comms now. Hmmm… this supervisor of theirs… Chief Roe sounds like a hard ass. That might come in handy later."_

"So, Ms. Banks," Castle whispered in Kate's ear, "how do you propose we find our way into Coonan's private quarters?"

"Why, Mr. Gunn," Kate replied flirtatiously, giving him her best 'come hither' look as she leaned into him, putting on a show of dancing provocatively against him, "I do believe that champagne has me feeling…frisky. We might be in need of some alone time. Perhaps that dashing security guard over by the door might point us to someplace more… private."

The two of them put on a very amorous display as they edged closer to the door guarded by the Eclipse merc in his black dress uniform before he moved to block their path.

"Mr. Coonan's private rooms are off-limits to guests without security clearance."

"But, we _have_ clearance," Kate practically moaned in response before turning to Castle and nuzzling his neck. "Don't we dear?"

"On who's authority?" the guard challenged as Castle looked at him expectantly.

"Mr. Coonan cleared it," Castle offered pausing to groan softly as Kate's lips brushed his neck again. "Somebody named… Chief Roe?"

"Okay… one second," the guard noted, almost sympathetically, before keying his wrist comm. "Chief Roe? It's Samuels. Have you granted access to Mr. Coonan's private rooms?"

"They have access, Samuels," a voice they could barely recognize as Serena's shot back acerbically. "Now stop bothering me!"

"Got it, sorry to bother you ma'am." Samuels replied before turning back to Castle and Beckett who were laying it on quite thick at that point, making him rather uncomfortable. "You're clear to go in. Enjoy the party."

No sooner had the door snapped shut behind them than Kate was back to business, following the floorplan on her omni-tool to the door of Coonan's personal quarters.

"Let's get cracking before we're missed at the party." She stage whispered, before she realized she was talking to herself and looked back down the corridor to see Caste propping himself against the doorway. Apparently she had laid on the amorous display for the guard a little _too_ thick.

"You coming, Castle?" she hissed back to him with a hint of mischief in her tone, rolling her eyes at him as he jogged up to her.

When the door to the private quarters slid open, they were greeted by a lavishly appointed, though sparsely decorated living space. Lounging elegantly atop the back of the very deep sofa facing the door, was a gray tabby cat with white paws of indeterminate age, glaring imperiously at the two intruders who had dared to trespass upon her domain.

Kate gave the cat a delicate scratch behind the ears before she began her search of the premises, careful not to get cat hair on her dress. Castle, meanwhile turned his attention to the computer's haptic display. While he waited for his omni-tool to perform the necessary "handshakes" to get him into the system, his eye was drawn to a picture frame on the wall near the desk, which paged through a series of images of the cat, still glaring at them from her royal throne on the back of the couch.

Cat lovers were an odd bunch, even vicious gangsters like Travis Coonan were no less devoted. Castle watched the screen for a full two minutes - while the decryption algorithm Liara had given him did its work - without seeing a single repeated image.

"Castle!" Kate hissed when he'd missed the beep that signaled he was in. "Focus!"

Castle sat down at the desk and perused the system. Within minutes he'd found the password he was looking for.

"Password is _'Helena Justina'_ ," Castle reported, his eye wandering back to the picture frame bearing the same name. "Why am I not surprised?"

Back at the door to the vault, Serena was waiting for them, having already cut the power to the kinetic barrier barring the elevator door. After a prompt from the DNA scanner, Kate supplied the sample she'd collected from Coonan's apartment, then followed it up with a recording of Coonan's voice saying _"Helena Justina"_

When the house VI welcomed "Mr. Coonan" to his vault and the elevator door opened to admit them, Serena activated her omni-tool.

"I'll scan the elevator for any further security in the elevator," Serena noted before turning her back to them and starting her scans. "You two go ahead any get dressed, fun time is over, it'sstime for the heavy lifting."

* * *

 **Three floors down**

The heavy security door to Travis Coonan's personal vault popped out into the room then lifted up out of the way, to reveal a private viewing gallery for row upon row of stolen or appropriated art and antiquities from across the known galaxy. The walls were adorned with paintings that hadn't see the light of day – or the walls of a museum in decades. Statues and sculptures included Michaelangelo's David, a few Egyptian pieces and even rare quarian stone reliefs.

The most notable piece of sculture was a massive green-hued copper head on the far side of the vault that turned both Castle and Beckett's heads – given they were both from Manhattan. The massive head of "Liberty Enlightening the World" also known as the Statue of Liberty.

"How the _hell_ did he get his hands on Lady Liberty's head?" Castle and Beckett hissed in unison.

"Damn you, Coonan!" Castle grumbled as they turned back to the business at hand. Getting this illegal collection back into the proper hands would have to be left to the proper authorities… perhaps with a gentle nudge or two from the Shadow Broker. After a last, longing glance at a fallen icon from their home planet, they continued their sweep of the vault. Kate stopped and stared, transfixed at a submachine gun of recent manufacture.

"Castle look at this," Kate whispered, "it's a Kassa Locust."

"No," Castle corrected, running his omni-tool over the serial number on the weapon's receiver, "It's THE Kassa Locust… the gun that killed two presidents." He'd been in the audience, near the back when the shooting occurred almost ten years before, but had been too far away to do more than watch and shield Alexis from the sight. After that, getting his adolescent daughter out of danger had been his first priority.

"Oh my god," Serena gasped, "there it is."

Her hand shook when she reached out to touch the neural implant that still had dried blood and brain matter on its casing. The last remains of her lover, Keiji Okuda. Though it was sealed to the platform and she lacked the tools to remove it, she wasted no time unlocking the device with her omni-tool – which had been code locked to a similar device in her own skull – and began to download the information within and simultaneously wiping the local copy.

"Don't bother, Ms. Kaye, it's code locked," the disembodied voice of Travis Coonan rumbled over the intercom. "I had a feeling that might be you at the door. I figured if it was really you, you'd find your way in anyway."

"You're familiar with my reputation then?" Serena hissed back. "Good, I'd hate to disappoint."

"Your skills are quite impressive, Ms. Kaye," Coonan replied. "You got into my vault like I'd left it open. Chief Roe will definitely need to upgrade security again. But, enough with the pleasantries, I need what's in _your_ graybox too, Ms Kaye. You can give it to me willingly, or you can die screaming like Okuda did."

Serena's omni-tool vibrated on her palm to let her know it had finished the job and she fried the now empty neural implant in a shower of sparks.

"Boring conversation anyway," she quipped as the cargo doors on the far wall snapped open and a squad of Eclipse commandos – led by the heretofore unseen Chief Roe fanned out into gallery.

"Kill them!" Coonan commanded as Castle, Beckett and Serena ducked for cover, "but keep the blonde's head intact, I need the implant in her skull."

Before Chief Roe could issue further commands to deploy her squad, Kate drilled her through the left eye with a three round burst from her rifle.

An eclipse trooper sighted in on Kate, but failed to check his six, Serena shimmered into the visible spectrum just long enough to electrocute him with the neural shock from her omni-tool. She disappeared quickly, but not before relieving him of his submachine gun. She'd never needed weapons on a job before – which was why she'd received such a light sentence from the turians – but she was clearly well aquatinted with its use, dropping two more mercs from different concealed locations in the viewing gallery.

Their primary advantage, however was the mercs' reluctance to employ heavy weapons in the viewing gallery, which Castle capitalized upon with great effect. He did what he was trained to do, bore in close and employ overwhelming firepower at close range. The skirmish was over almost as quickly as it had begun, with a corpse jammed in the door track to the exit, providing them with a means to escape the vault and move further into the underground complex.

"You should have given me the data, Ms. Kaye," Coonan taunted over the comma, "you know what happened to your boy toy when he fought back."

"Don't you dare talk about Keiji like that… murderer! " Serena shouted before destroying the loudspeaker with a burst from her submachine gun.

A door opened at the far end of the corridor just long enough to admit a relatively low-strength eclipse squad, some still wearing the black, ceremonial armor from the party.

"Keep them busy," Coonan ordered, "I'll deal with them myself."

Though this squad did have one asari vanguard, Kate snatched a grenade launcher from one of the dead mercs and emptied it into the charging biotic, sending pieces of her all over the room, which took the stuffing out of the rest of the squad, rendering them easy pickings for combined small arms fire.

Castle and Beckett stacked up at the door, taking only a moment to catch their breath and swap out spent heat sinks and lock them into place before keying the cargo lift door to take them up to the loading dock.

* * *

Travis Coonan strapped himself into his personal Mantis gunship and began the preflight procedures. While waiting for the engines and over-clocked kinetic barriers to power up, he reflected upon the last time he'd done a hit personally. Shortly after the end of the First Contact War, if he recalled correctly. He'd gone by the name Rathborne, back then, and a very ambitious ADA in New York wanted a pesky civil rights lawyer - Johanna Beckett if he recalled the name correctly – silenced. He'd made a lot of money from that hit… enough to bankroll his takeover of the Westies and move them off planet to Beckenstein, away from the prying eyes of the NYPD.

"If you want a job done right, boyo" Coonan muttered, in a mild Irish brogue, "sometimes you gotta do it yourself."

* * *

Castle, Beckett and Serena emerged from the massive cargo lift and back out into daylight on a concealed cargo dock near the back of Coonan's estate. The two soldiers immediately sweeping the area for cover and for potential opposition and in very short order found both.

The extent to which they had decimated Coonan's security force had become readily apparent when the few they met were supplemented by a sizeable contingent of Loki mechs. No sooner had the three of them dove for cover and returned fire the mercs were supported by a Mantis class gunship opening fire with heavy weapons.

"We could have done this the easy way, Ms. Kaye," Coonan's voice boomed over the gunship's loudspeaker, "allow me to show you the _hard_ way."

Kate popped out of cover and fired a salvo of grenades at the gunship, but with no effect, the grenades exploding harmlessly against the gunship's augmented kinetic barrier.

"That thing's shields are too strong," she barked at Castle.

"Leave that to me," Serena added just before engaging her active camo. "Clear me a path through Coonan's guard force and I'll deal with his kinetic barriers."

While the gunship was swinging around for another pass, Castle and Beckett nodded to each other, their minds seemingly synched. Kate laid down suppressing fire, Castle charged biotics and engaged the guards directly, charging into them sending mech and merc alike sprawling, which punched a hole in their line that Serena was quick to take advantage of. She dropped her active camo and redirected power to reducing her own mass. She leaped from one stack of cargo crates to another higher one, then onto the cargo crane superstructure. When she'd reached a high enough vantage point, she somersaulted onto the canopy of Coonan's gunship.

Grabbing one of cockpit sensor arrays to keep from being shaken off, she one handed her omni-tool and keyed the code hack and held on for dear life as it began the series of handshakes that would give her access to the kinetic barrier conrols.

Inside the cockpit of his Mantis, Coonan continued juking the controls to shake Serena off until a series of alarms competed for his attention… just before the kinetic barriers snapped off. He shot a glare out his cockpit at the source of his problem.

Serena threw him a jaunty salute before somersaulting from the craft to perfectly stick a landing on the deck that would have done and Olympic gymnast proud.

"Shields down," Serena gasped, getting her breathing under control. "Put this son of a bitch down."

"Even if you escape," Coonan threatened over the loudspeaker, "I'll scour the galaxy for you!"

Castle popped out from cover with a rocket launcher he'd appropriated from one of the mercs.

"Scour this, you son of a bitch," he hissed, right before keying a three rocket burst.

The last thing Travis Coonan saw before his gunship was obliterated was the threat detection alarm. Pieces of the mantis gunship rained down onto the deck as Serena engaged the beckon call that brought their car up from the garage on the other side of the complex.

"That was for Keiji," Serena whispered, "you son of a bitch."

* * *

The ride back to the hotel was quiet and uneventful, other than passing a large contingent of law enforcement vehicles on their way to the Coonan estate. Kate wondered how they could have responded so quickly, but kept her suspicions to herself.

Serena spent the entire ride in the back set, her knees up arms locked around them, giving little notice or thought to the scenery passing outside the car. Her thoughts centered upon the list of files transmitted directly to her graybox from Keiji's.

Upon returning to Castle and Beckett's hotel suite, Serena transferred a file with her name on it to the suite's holographic projector and almost immediately was greeted by a holographic representation of a nondescript, though well-dressed Japanese man.

" _Serena, if you're watching this, it's because I'm dead. I really screwed up big time with this score. The information I warned you about is all here, and it's big, Serena. Too big to let somebody like Coonan get their hands on it, no matter how much he was paying me. If the Citadel Council ever got wind of this, the alliance could be implicated. I encrypted the data as heavily as I could, hid the data in every piece of information in my archive and keyed the encryption to your DNA profile so nobody could get the entire package."_

The hologram of Keiji Okuda paused for a moment, as if looking for absolution he wasn't certain he deserved.

" _But if I'm dead, and anyone knows about what I found, then I've made you a target my love. I am so sorry."_

"Keiji," Serena breathed his name, a tear streaming down her cheek.

" _Serena,"_ the holograph continued, _"I know you. You'll want to keep these memories forever, but you don't need the memories from my damn neural implant to know I'll always be with you. Please… destroy these files. There's nothing more I can do to protect you."_

"I…" Serena sniffed, her cheeks wet with tears. "I can't do that! This is all… it's all that's left!"

" _Goodbye, Serena,"_ The hologram said in closing, _"I love you."_

"Is there any way to weed out just the incriminating information?" Castle asked.

"No…" Serena sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes, taking the handkerchief Castle offered, "Keiji's a master at encrypting data files. If he laced it into his memories it would take years to decrypt it all, even if you knew his encryption key. You can't get at the data without parsing the rest."

"If you're planning to keep his files," Kate asked, "are you prepared to accept the consequences?"

"Yes, I am," Serena replied. "I'll disappear. I'm barely on the grid anyway. Nobody but you two and Liara will know I exist. I do my best work in the dark anyway."

"Maybe Liara can go to bat for you with the Shadow Broker." Castle suggested. He wanted to help Serena, but Liara's secret wasn't his to confide to a stranger.

"Things to think about." Serena noted, turning to leave. "Dr. T'Soni told me the room is paid off for two more days, enjoy yourselves. You won't see me again. Thank you for your help."

She was already gone by the time either of them could formulate a reply.

"Two more days, huh?" Kate noted mischievously.

"Mrs. Castle, is that a proposition?" Castle asked, his own tone becoming lighter.

"Why yes, Mr. Beckett," Kate replied, "I do believe it was."

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note** As a little fun payback to Lord of Kavaka for making me the big bad in his story "Whiteout" I've made him the bad guy in this chapter. Enjoy.**_


	16. Sins Of the Father

**Chapter Sixteen  
Sins of the Father**

* * *

" _And I... am feeling so small  
It was over my head, I know nothing at all  
And I... will stumble and fall, I'm still learning to love  
Just starting to crawl"  
_Little Big World: "Say Something"

* * *

After the better part of a week away, Kate was pleasantly surprised upon their return to the Citadel to find the Normandy undamaged. She would not have been shocked to learn either Jack or Grunt had torn the ship apart without herself or Castle to keep them out of trouble.

She sent Castle on ahead of her to their cabin to unpack and just to be sure took the lift the rest of the way down to the engineering deck to check in on their resident tank-bred krogan. When she arrived at the section of the cargo bay he'd taken over as his territory, the deck was strangely quiet. Grunt was sitting at an extranet terminal with his back to her, but it was clear by the slump in his massive shoulders that something was bothering him.

"There something you need, Beckett?" Grunt asked, without bothering to turn away from the extranet terminal.

"Just thought I'd drop by, see how you were acclimatizing," Kate replied, hiding her concern for him behind a mask of duty to the crew.

"The cargo hold is too open, not enough cover," Grunt noted dully, looking out the window down into the main cargo deck and shuttle bay, clearly reciting something he'd been taught by rote. "Warlord Granth would target here to scatter heavy cargo, then focus on engines. That's what tank imprints show about human ships anyway. It's how I learned in the tank… old pictures where memories should be. The learning program worked like that, just "remember this, know that," picture after picture. It didn't teach me a reason to care."

"What other human info is floating around in there?" Kate asked, hoping to draw him out some more.

"Less than a finger deep to sever your spine," Grunt replied brightening a little at the small yelp of surprise she made when he turned and pointed at her sternum, before he shrugged, turned away, his shoulders slumping again. "You're soft. Salarians, asari, hanar… all soft. Quarians, not so much. Turians, you have to work the blade a little I guess. Don't see much point to it though."

"Something must move you," Kate pressed. "You're as genetically krogan as you can get."

"I see suffering, the dead and I think _"weak."_ I'm supposed to be strong. My guts were grown from thousands more worthy. The dead were weak. If they were strong, I wouldn't be needed."

Grunt stopped and emitted what sounded like a sigh before his shoulders slumped yet again. Kate didn't know if krogan could be depressed, at least the way humans understood it, but Grunt's sullen demeanor sounded pretty damn close.

"I don't know why Okeer started teaching," Grunt continued, "when he turned on the tank the first time, I screamed. Weak, pitiful."

Kate wasn't sure _how_ to comfort a depressed krogan. She was pretty sure a hug wasn't what he needed. She was equally certain that Castle would probably be better at this sort of thing, but she was the one Grunt trusted. The only being on this ship he willingly answered to.

"So you started small," Kate finally replied, "but you became what you are. Not everyone gets that chance."

"I'm built for strength, but didn't earn it. I just… am. The dead were strong enough to try, even if they lost," Grunt replied, turning away from her and snorted, "The _'perfect krogan'_ ignoring what made me. No strength in that."

"My opinion?" Kate declared as forcefully as she could. "Fuck Okeer _and_ what he thought you should be. He's dead, you're _not_. Find your own place among your people and to hell with the one he _wanted_ you to have."

"I'll take another look at what happened to the krogan," Grunt replied, perking up only marginally even as he suffered the indignity of Kate's affectionate pat on the arm. "Try to find a reason to care about it."

"Take care, Grunt," Kate offered as she made her way to the door, "We'll see if we can find another fight to get you into, that always seems to make you feel better."

Kate walked back toward the main cargo lift, unsure if she'd accomplished anything. This whole _"battlemaster"_ thing was harder than she thought it would be.

* * *

Because a starship captain's job is never quite done, she'd barely returned to their quarters and settled in on the sofa to relax with a cup of her husband's decadent coffee when Jenny informed her that Thane had asked to speak with her privately. She sighed, put her boots and jacket back on, pulled her hair into a messy bun and took the lift down to the crew deck. She tapped the chime on the door to Thane's quarters, which opened almost immediately to admit her.

"You wanted to speak with me?" she asked when the door slid shut behind her.

"Yes," Thane replied, sounding more conflicted that she had ever seen the Drell assassin, "but now that you are here… it seems more difficult to speak about."

"Take your time," Kate offered, mindful of the illness that was slowly killing him, "We can take this at your pace."

"Thank you, but I fear I have been doing that for far too long," Thane replied, turning away from Kate, contemplating the sniper rifle disassembled on his workbench for cleaning, as if to screw on his resolve.

"I had a family once," he began, after the brief pause. "I still have a son. His name is Kolyat, I haven't seen or heard from him in a long time."

"How long?" Kate asked, not sure if she wanted the answer.

"Ten of your years," Thane replied. "He showed me some of his schoolwork and asked if we could _'dance crazy'_. We did that when he was younger."

"What sort of dance is that?" Kate asked in spite of herself.

"It's…" Thane began but his eyes seemed to glaze over as a memory came alive in his mind and his tone changed. _"I check my extranet contacts, expecting an update on my next target. The console plays music… old… unfashionable… Kolyat jumps into the room. "Hi father!" runs around me in circles… I scoop him up… toss him into the air… he shrieks… laughs… "Spin me!"he says… the console beeps… I put him down…click the message. "Father," he pleads… tugs my sleeve. "I need to read this," I say… I don't look at him."_

By the time his focus was back in the present a single tear had rolled down his scaly cheek and he bowed his head in shame.

"Did something happen to them?" Kate asked, practically radiating sympathy.

"I abandoned them," Thane replied, the shock in Kate's expression prompted him to continue. "Not all at once, mind you, nothing so dramatic. No sneaking out in the middle of the night, no final argument or slammed door. I just… did my job. I hunted and killed for the Hanar across the galaxy. _'Away on business,'_ Irykah would tell people. I was always _'away on business'._ "

"Why bring this up now?" Kate asked, not sure if she should feel pity or disgust.

"When my wife's soul departed from her body, I… attended to his needs, or thought I did," Thane replied, his tone clearly spoke of deep regret. "I have a large extended family and left Kolyat in the care of his aunts and uncles. I've neither seen nor spoken to him since."

"If we're having this conversation," Kate asked, "I take it he's contacted you?"

"No, he hasn't," Thane replied. "But my condition has me… judging my life. Measuring what I've added to the universe and what I've taken away, so I used my old contacts to find him. He has become… disconnected. He does what his body wills."

"Disconnected?" Kate asked.

"The body is not our true self, the soul is," Thane explained. "Body and soul work together in a whole person. When the soul is weakened by despair, anger or fear… when the body is ill or injured, the individual becomes disconnected… no longer whole."

"What's wrong with him?" Kate asked. "Is he injured?"

"Something happened that should not have," Thane replied. "He knows things he should never have learned about where I have been, what I've done. I don't know his reasons, but he has taken a job as a hit man on the Citadel. I need your help to stop him, the path the Hanar chose for me is not one he should walk."

"Who would hire a rookie for a contract killing?" Kate asked.

"I am afraid someone who knows of me may have assumed that because we share a name, that we share skills," Thane replied. "One of my greatest joys had always been that Kolyat had taken after his mother, not me. I do not know why he would seek out the task, or accept it."

"To be closer to you, maybe?" Kate offered.

"That thought haunts me more than any other." Thane responded, unable to look Kate in the eye.

"Could he have name-dropped you to get hired?" Kate speculated.

"A possibility, but I don't think so," Thane noted shamefully. "I've given him no reason to respect me or my name."

"I'll talk to Castle," Kate replied, the more she learned about Thane Krios, the less she seemed to know. There were so many contradictions to him, so many shades of gray to his character, given her more black and white view of morality. "We'll do what we can to help stop him."

"Thank you," Thane offered. "I will be meditating on my failure as a parent until you are ready to disembark."

* * *

After a brief conversation with Castle, the two of them and Thane departed the ship. The most natural starting point of their search being the Zakera Ward precinct, with the hope that Captain Hunt might have some clue where to begin looking for Thane's son. By silent consensus, it was decided that she would let Castle do the talking, since Hunt didn't seem to like her much.

"Captain Hunt," Castle began, "my associate is trying to find his son. We think a local criminal may have hired him."

"That should be easy enough to track," Hunt replied, while doing as search on his console, "we don't get many drell here, they're even more rare than quarians. One of my officers reported a drell recently and talking to Mouse. Interesting."

"Mouse?" Thane asked.

"A former duct rat turned petty criminal, runs errands for anyone who'll pay," Hunt explained. "Probably not the guy who hired your boy, but he keeps his ear to the ground."

"What was it you called him?" Kate asked.

"Duct rat," Hunt explained, "It's local slang for the poor kids who grow up on the station. When they're small they tend to play in the ventilation ducts, where adults can't get to them."

"Aren't the ducts dangerous?" Castle asked.

"Every couple of months, we pull a little body out of them," Hunt noted with a hint of mournful sympathy, noting a similar expression in Castle's eyes, "lacerated by fan blades, broken by deadfalls, suffocated by vacuum exposure. Those are just the ones we know about, most just disappear. Mouse survived long enough that he can't fit in the ducts anymore. He was one of the smarter or luckier ones."

"What sort of mischief does Mouse generally get himself into?" Castle inquired.

"Odd jobs for shifty people," Hunt replied. "Whatever's available to get by. Data running, fencing stolen goods, selling illegal VI personalities."

Hunt turned toward Kate and smirked in her direction, not having softened toward her in the least.

"Actually he was selling one of your wife," he mentioned.

"Me?" Kate asked.

"Yeah," Hunt replied showing genuine amusement, "When you erased a file it would say, "I delete data like you on the way to real errors." Buggy though, it crashed every half hour. The error message was about how the galaxy was at stake and you should fix the problem yourself."

"I think we've heard enough," Kate noted, blushing nearly scarlet in embarrassment, much to Hunt's amusement.

"Mouse can usually be found outside the Dark Star on Deck twenty eight," Hunt noted to Castle. "He works out of one of the public comm terminals there. You should pick up a copy of the 'Beckett VI' when you talk to him."

Hunt turned to Thane, his voice sounding a bit more sympathetic than he was with Kate.

"It sounds like your boy is running with the wrong crowd." He noted.

"Yes, I agree," Thane replied.

"If Mouse can't get you in touch with your son directly, He'll know who can. I'll help you if you need it."

"You barely know me, Captain," Thane asked, "why would you help me?"

"I've worked Zakera Ward for the last two years," Hunt replied. "Every day I've seen kids with no other options turn to crime, because their parents don't care. You're trying to save yours."

"He faces a dark path," Thane agreed, bowing low in a show of respect for Jackson Hunt. Very few would be willing to help him for no other reason but principle.

"We better hurry then," Kate noted and they turned for the door.

"You didn't tell him that Kolyat plans to assassinate someone," Thane whispered to Castle on their way out the door.

"He's a cop," Castle replied, "he'd be obligated to report it. They'd send officers to stop Kolyat and he could end up dead. I'm hoping we can get to him before that happens."

"Yes, of course," Thane noted.

* * *

Castle, Beckett and Thane took the nearest elevator up to the entertainment district for Zakera Ward, stepping off the lift less then a hundred paces from the Dark Star Lounge. It didn't take long to find a nervous looking human male skulking near the public comm terminals.

"You Mouse?" Beckett asked, sounding very much like the cop she used to be, which made the young man jump.

"What do you…" Mouse said before he turned around, to be even more startled. "Oh… shit! Krios? I thought you retired!"

Thane shook his head.

"When we heard the name," Thane supplied, in response to Kate's questioning look, "I didn't think it would be the same Mouse, he was a contact here on the Citadel when I was active. He and some other children would gather information for me."

"You gave another drell instructions for an assassination," Thane asked Mouse, his voice stern, though his compassion never wavered. "Who's the target?"

"I don't know…" Mouse stammered, clearly hiding something. "I didn't ask… some of the people I work for now… they can make me disappear. I wanna help you, Krios… you always done right by us. But I ain't gonna die for you."

"You know Thane, right?" Castle offered, trying the gentle approach he would with Alexis on the rare occasion discipline was required. "You know he won't rat you out."

"I want to help you," Mouse replied, his face a riot of fear and indecision, "he was always nice to us… but the people running the rackets here now… they ain't nice."

"I swear to you Mouse," Thane confirmed, "You will not be named."

"All right… all right…" Mouse backpedaled, "He came with that holo I gave you… said he wanted a job. I carried for him cuz I thought you'd want me to… ran through your old contacts to see who might give him a shot. Only one who offered was Elias Kelham. He was small time when you were last here Krios, but after most of the big guys got cacked up on the Presidium during the geth attack, he took over the rackets on the lower end of Shin Akiba. He's seriously bad news. He finds out I told you anything, I won't live long, he's real basic about setting examples."

Mouse turned to Thane, his eyes pleading, "You got any kindness for me at all, Krios, put a bullet in Kelham's head before you go."

"Let's head back to Hunt," Kate noted, she'd had her share of confidential informants as a cop. She often wondered what _West Side Wally_ was up to, if he wasn't dead.

* * *

"Find anything?" Hunt asked, when they filed into his precinct office. "Was Mouse able to give you the name of the guy he's working for?"

"Yeah," Caste replied, "Elias Kelham."

"Kelham… shit" Hunt groaned inwardly, clearly betraying that there was more going on than Castle or Beckett knew. "Ah… look, this is awkward. Kelham and I have an… arrangement. He doesn't cause much trouble and donates to the C-Sec widows and orphans fund and I… ignore him."

Hunt could practically feel Kate's death glare burning a hole into the back of his skull, but he didn't respond to her. He didn't like the situation much either, but C-Sec had been gutted during the geth attack. Even with a large influx of human cops and military police from the Alliance, he'd barely had enough officers to restore order.

The deal with Kelham hadn't been a perfect solution, but his background was espionage, not law enforcement. It was a Faustian bargain that had kept blood off the streets in Zakera Ward long enough to rebuild. Ambassador Bracken had smoothed things over with the new executor to keep him from looking too closely, but he knew it couldn't last forever.

"Will you still help us?" Castle asked.

"I'll get some of my people to bring him in and set you up with a private room," Hunt replied. "You're wife being a Spectre simplifies things, so he might not connect the dots."

"Bring him in," Kate stated, still glaring at Hunt. "We may not have much time."

"I'll make it happen," Hunt said to Castle, still steadfastly ignoring Kate, "wait here."

It didn't take long for Hunt's C-Sec officers to locate Elias Kelham. In spite of whatever backdoor deal had been made, Hunt kept him under constant surveillance.

"He'll expect me to get him out of this," Hunt noted, speaking to Kate for the first time since they arrived. "I'm sure my desk has at least four messages from his advocate as we speak. I'll stall him, but get in there and work fast."

* * *

"They've painted since I was last in here," Kelham noted after being brought in and handcuffed to the table. "You must think it's funny bringing me in like this. Where's Hunt?"

"I'm with Special Tactics and Recon," Kate noted with casual indifference. "I pulled strings a lot higher up the Citadel food chain than a corrupt police captain to ask you a few questions off the record"

"Off the record in a C-Sec interrogation room?" Kelham snorted. "Sure."

"Focus, Mr. Kelham," Castle warned. "you hired a drell to assassinate someone. Who do you want dead?"

"I believe we're done here," Kelham noted, a little less casually. "I won't say another word until my advocate arrives. Hunt won't let you touch me."

"Hunt doesn't know we're here," Castle noted, pushing off from the wall, smacking Kelham lightly in the back of the head as he walked by.

"What is this lady?" he snorted at Beckett, then turned and glared at Castle, "Go ahead wanker, hit me for real, I dare you."

Before Castle could take Kelham up on it, Kate grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the interrogation room window, cracking the glass behind him.

"Listen to me very carefully, Mr. Kelham," Kate hissed, not realizing her biotics had flared and she'd lifted the now terrified crime lord off the ground, "I'm a Spectre, that means I could wipe you and your whole fucking syndicate off the map, in front of a live extranet audience and no one on this godforsaken station will care."

"J-Joram Talid…" Kelham stammered. "He's a turian… running for intendant of Zakera Ward."

"Where can we find him?" Thane asked, his tone level, but his eyes were somewhere else.

"He lives in the eight hundred blocks," Kelham added, turning visibly pale, "he's not hard to find, he's usually out campaigning."

"Thank you Mr. Kelham." Kate stated politely, as she set him back down on his feet and made a show of straightening his collar and brushing off his lapels. "The Citadel Council appreciates your cooperation in this matter."

As Castle, Beckett and Thane filed out without another word, Kelham's knees turned to jelly and he slid down the wall to the floor, his trousers wet.

* * *

"What's the story?" Hunt asked, "Why did Kelham hire the boy?"

"To assassinate a turian named Joram Talid," Kate replied, "You know him?"

"Talid?" Hunt replied. "Yeah. You may have seen his posters around. He's promising to eliminate organized crime on the ward. Thing is, his message is all mixed up in race politics. He's anti-human."

"Are things so bad that somebody can openly campaign as anti-human?" Castle asked, astonished.

"Before the Battle of the Citadel, the alien population here thought we were violent upstarts. Look what's happened since then. A human fleet guarding the station for months, a human jumping the line to join the Citadel Council, C-Sec suddenly filled with humans. Anderson does what he can, but some people have lived on this station since before humans developed space travel. They see it as a coup."

"Sergeant!" Hunt ordered, "Get a patrol car. These three need to get to the eight hundred blocks."

"Yes sir," The young looking desk sergeant replied, she stood from her desk, withdrew her sidearm from the desk drawer and motioned for them to follow her.

* * *

They looked around after they arrived at the eight hundred blocks of Zakera Ward and it didn't take long to find Talid, dressed in a finely tailored suit, flanked by a massive krogan wearing the distinctive red armor of the Blood Pack. One of the most violent krogan off-word gangs in the known galaxy. Given their persona non grata status in Council Space, Kate was surprised to see one walking around brazenly wearing the armor.

"There he is, Thane," Kate noted, how do you want to play this?"

"Follow him on the maintenance catwalks," Thane replied, "tell me what he's doing. His Krogan bodyguard will make him easy to follow."

"Where will you be?" Castle asked.

"The darkest corner with the best view." Thane replied.

As Castle and Beckett headed for the entrance to the maintenance catwalks, Thane bowed his head and clasped his hands in supplication.

"Amonkira, Lord of Hunters," he prayed, "grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true and my feet swift. And should the worst should come to pass… grant me forgiveness."

Two pedestrians passed between him and the nearest security camera, and by the time they passed out of frame he engaged active camo and disappeared.

Meanwhile on the maintenance catwalks, Castle and Beckett watched the turian politician glad-handing with voters of various different alien races in the general marketplace, which Castle dutifully relayed to Thane, who kept out of sight to keep from spooking him, or tipping off Kolyat before they could locate him.

"No matter how many planets I visit, or alien races I encounter," Kate noted absently, "how is it that career politicians always manage to sound exactly alike?"

"The universe has a twisted sense of humor?' Castle quipped in response.

"Any sign of Kolyat?" Thane asked over the comms.

"Nothing yet," Kate replied, "without sniper training, he'd have to get in close, so the crowds may be keeping him away."

Castle and Beckett kept tabs on Talid, his Blood Pack bodyguard making him quite easy to spot in nearly any crowd. Though at least two of the stops were made so the gang member could shake places down for money while Talid waited outside.

Kate made a point of recording said stops on her omni-tool, paying special attention to keep Talid in frame. As the Blood Pack were supposedly banned from operating legally in Council Space, she uploaded a copy to C-Sec and seriously considered sending an anonymous copy to Talid's political opponent just to be sure.

On one of Talid's last stops en-route to his apartment at the end of the eight hundred blocks, he had no idea that Castle and Beckett following him, nor did he notice the young drell shadowing him from the other side of the pedestrian walkway.

"Kolyat!" Castle shouted, distracting the drell before he could engage.

Kolyat panicked and opened fire, killing the Krogan bodyguard in a hail of bullets, then put his gun to Talid's head and forced him further down the street into the residential district.

"Thane!" Kate shouted.

"I saw," Thane replied, midway through dropping out of active camo.

"He's heading for Talid's apartment," Hunt ordered his HRT squad, "Move! Move!"

Kate and Rick stacked up at the door and dynamically entered the residence, weapons out clearing the large apartment room by room. When the reached the living area, Kolyat forced Talid to his knees, (not easy given turian leg structure) his pistol pressed to the back of Talid's head. The boy looked rattled, this had clearly not gone according to plan. He was rattled even further when Thane strode into view.

"Kolyat," Thane offered, a lone spot of calm in a sea of confusion.

"This… this must be a joke," Kolyat at him. "Now? Now you show up?"

"Help me, drell," Talid stammered, "I'll do whatever you want."

Half a second later, Jackson Hunt and two of his HRT operators burst into the room.

"C-Sec!" Hunt commanded. "Put the gun down, son."

"Get out of my way!" Kolyat demanded. "I'm walking out. He's coming with me!"

"They'll have snipers outside." Thane cautioned. He knew what his son was doing was wrong, but if it came to a fight, he knew he would kill every C-Sec agent in the room to keep his son safe. He owed him that much.

"I don't need your help!" Kolyat snapped at him. But the distraction was all that Kate needed to slip into Kolyat's personal space, force his gun hand up and disarm him. She gave him a none too gentle shove away from Talid for good measure, to send him stumbling backward.

"Talid," she commanded, her tone brooking no defiance, "get the hell out of here."

"Daniels, Cafferty, Take him," Hunt commanded, "Get him checked out by EMS."

"Take the boy into custody," Hunt ordered, and another of his officers moved in with restraints.

"You son of a bitch," Kolyat leveled at his father.

"Kolyat, your father doesn't have much time left," Castle offered. "He's trying to make up for his mistakes."

"What? So you've come for my forgiveness?" Kolyat spat. "So you can die in peace or something?"

"No, Kolyat," Thane replied, "I came to grant you peace. You're angry because I wasn't there when your mother died."

"You weren't there when she was alive," Kolyat shot back. "Why should you be there when she died."

"They killed her to get to me," Thane replied. "Her death was my fault."

"What?" Kolyat stammered.

"After her body was given to the deep, I was… disconnected," Thane continued. "I hunted down the trigger men… got them to tell me who who hired them and then tracked them down, too. I hurt them… eventually I killed them. When I came back to find you, you were… older. I should have stayed with you, I'm sorry."

"I guess it's too bad for me you waited so long, huh?" Kolyat replied, anger still written all over his face.

"Kolyat," Thane offered, "I have taken many bad things out of the universe. You are the only good thing I have ever added to it."

"This isn't a conversation you should have in front of strangers, " Hunt offered, sounding more sympathetic than Kate had ever heard him before he turned to his officers. "Boys, take Kolyat and his father back to the precinct. Put them in conference room three and give them as much time as they need."

"I'm surprised you're letting them do that," Kate said to Hunt.

"You think he's the only one who ever screwed up as a father?" Hunt responded softly, his eye wandering in Castle's direction. His own son… not ten feet away who had no idea who he was. His life that could have been, but wasn't. He'd come out of the First Contact War with PTSD and -much like Krios- a lethal skillset that did not lend itself to family life.

Killing people was the only thing he had ever been any good at. He was looking to change that, and his job was his own twisted path to redemption. Maybe someday, he'd be able to make things right… but not today.

"I have to get back to the precinct," Hunt stated evenly, shaking off his reverie, "Come on, I'll give you two a lift."

* * *

 **Zakera Ward C-Sec Precinct  
Four hours later**

"They've been in there for quite a while," Kate noted, her eyes drawn to the closed door of the conference room.

"The kid's been through a lot," Hunt replied. "I ran some searches in the C-Sec archives. About ten years ago, somebody was cleaning house. A bunch of really bad people were killed. According to the medical examiner's report, the doer took their own sweet time with em. Nearly every bone in their bodies were broken one at a time. Prime suspect was a drell, my predecessor never caught him.

"Ten years is a long time," Kate noted "the guy who did that probably doesn't exist anymore."

"I certainly hope not," Hunt replied. Deep down, he pondered the notion of somebody like Alexi Volkov or Jona Sedaris learning he was once "Nemesis" one of the most prolific human assassins to come out of the First Contact War. What might his response have been, had one of them done to Martha, or his granddaughter what happened to Thane's wife.

"Nothing good," He muttered to himself, pushing the nightmare scenario that had kept him out of their lives back to the darkest corner of his psyche where it belonged.

At about that time, Thane emerged from the conference room, his face withdrawn.

"How did it go?" Castle asked.

"Our problems… " Thane began haltingly. "They aren't something I can fix with a few words. We'll keep talking, see what happens."

"Your boy shot somebody," Hunt stated. "Nobody I feel any sympathy for, but there it is."

"I watched those guys shaking down businesses and threatening people." Kate noted, "Kelham was using him, using his father's name to keep his own hands clean. If you can let him operate with near impunity, perhaps we can come to an arrangement."

"I'll think about it." Hunt replied, "but he'll have to stay here on the Citadel where I can keep an eye on him."

"Done." Kate noted. In all of her life she never thought she'd help somebody beat a murder rap, but she never thought she'd be working with Cerberus either.

Jackson Hunt sat at his desk and pondered over the file he'd started on Kolyat Krios and deleted it. Kolyat hadn't killed anyone but a Krogan mercenary - who likely had it coming if what he'd heard about the Blood Pack was anywhere near accurate. The boy was wavering on a knife edge between light and dark, if he went into the system now, he might never come out. He knew that darkness well, he'd nearly drowned in it until "Nemesis" was almost all that was left.

His son wasn't the only one who could write a convincing work of fiction. Corrupt politicians were nothing if not predictable, if Joram Talid wanted to make waves, he'd show him the data that had mysteriously turned up in the confidential database about his dealings with a criminal syndicate that was banned in Council Space. That would kill his political aspirations as dead as a walk out the airlock without a vac-suit. He'd either cave or he'd be done on the Citadel.

He could live with that.

** ** _Author's_** _ **Note** This one is quite short by my standards anyway. Five more chapters to go.**_


	17. The Face of the Enemy

**Chapter Seventeen  
The Face of the Enemy**

* * *

" _Hello darkness, my old friend  
I've come to talk with you again  
Because a vision softly creeping  
Left its seeds while I was sleeping  
And the vision that was planted in my brain  
Still remains  
Within the sound of silence"_

Simon & Garfunkel "The Sound of Silence"  
(as performed by Disturbed)

* * *

"Captain Beckett, the Illusive Man wishes to speak to you in the debriefing room."

Kate entered the conference room and keyed her command code into the console at the end of the table. The wireframe model hologram at the center of the table (a smaller version of the one in the CIC) disappeared just before the table retracted into the floor and the quantum entanglement communications suite engaged its cameras.

Kate stepped into the center of the now empty room as the lights dimmed and a holographic overlay obscured the room's remaining features.

"Patching the Illusive Man through, Captain," Jenny noted as the overlay coalesced into the now familiar rendering of the Cerberus founder's office.

"Beckett, we've caught a break," he stated without preamble. "I intercepted an automated distress beacon from a turian patrol out beyond the Korlus system. From the sensor data they sent, they intercepted a Collector ship and managed to cripple it before they were wiped out. I need you to board that ship and get intel directly from its data banks."

"How did a turian patrol squadron manage to take one of those bastards out." Kate asked, shivering slightly, the memory of the Collector ship tearing the original Normandy to pieces around her flashing in her mind.

"The Collectors could be making repairs as we speak," Mason Wood noted, ignoring her question entirely, "we can't let an opportunity for hard data like this slip by."

"How long will I have before the patrol is declared overdue?" Kate asked., "I'm assuming they'll be sending ships to investigate."

"They will… eventually," Wood replied. "I intercepted their distress beacon, temporarily and we're feeding them false reports. You're close enough to their last reported coordinates that you can be in and out before the turians declare them overdue."

"Are you sure this information is good?" Kate asked. The last thing she needed was another debacle like the one on the prison ship Purgatory.

"Information is my weapon, Captain," Wood replied, dryly, "it's good."

"Send me the coordinates and we'll get on it." Kate replied.

"Already sent," Wood said. "Find a terminal to hack into and establish an uplink with Jenny. She's been programmed to know what to look for and can mine data faster than any organic. Good luck, Beckett."

The Illusive man cut the QEC channel abruptly reverting Kate's senses back to the Normandy's conference room. As soon as she stepped clear, the table lifted up from the floor and the wireframe model of the Normandy snapped back on, Kate keyed the intercom.

"CIC this is the captain," Kate commanded. "Spool up the FTL and make calculations for a combat jump to the Korlus system. Sound general quarters, set condition one throughout the ship."

Moments later, Jenny's calm even voice could be heard of the ship's loudspeakers.

" _General quarters General quarters, all hands man your battle stations. Condition one is now in effect. Secure all stations for FTL combat jump and stand ready to go to silent running."_

* * *

 **Forty-five minutes later**

The Normandy dropped out of FTL far enough out of the system to secure stations and go to silent running without drawing any local attention and made its way to the coordinates of the stricken Collector ship.

"We have a visual, Captain." Hastings reported, standing at the shoulder of LIDAR station operator.

"I am picking up very low emissions," Jenny's disembodied voice reported. "Passive infrared temperatures suggest most systems are offline, engines are cold."

"That thing is massive," Hastings noted. "How the hell did the Turians take it out?"

The only small comfort Kate had as she stared at the collector ship's massive pitted hull floating in the cockpit's viewport as if borne from her worst nightmares was that everyone else was equally transfixed and could not see her shaking hand reach back and link her fingers with Castle. The reassuring bulk of his broad shoulders helping her find her center. The single whispered "Breathe" in her ear helping stave off the knot of terror in her gut.

"Lidar scans do not detect any hull breaches on the side of the ship facing us," Jenny continued. "I detect no mass effect field distortions. It appears that their drive core is offline."

"Rendezvous in thirty seconds, Captain," Ryan noted from his station in the pilot's seat.

The Normandy heeled over and matched the Collector ship's slow tumble, while Castle, Beckett, Garrus and Dr. Solus climbed aboard the shuttle and their pilot prepared it for launch.

No sooner had the shuttle emerged from Normandy's landing bay than Jenny was able to hack one of the ship's massive loading docks and in short order, the Kodiak settled onto the deck in the massive, empty bay. As the group disembarked and the hatch sealed closed behind them, the ship certainly seemed as quiet and deserted as their intel from the Illusive Man had suggested.

"Penetrating scans have detected an access node to uplink with Collector databanks" Jenny noted through the comms. "Marking location to your hard-suit computer. I have also compared this ship's E/M signature to known Collector profiles and confirmed that it is the vessel you encountered on Horizon."

"Maybe the defense towers softened it up for the turians," Castle theorized.

"The missing colonists might still be aboard," Garrus noted, "if they're still alive."

With a curt nod of acknowledgement, Kate indicated for Garrus to take point and the small boarding party moved out into the dark, creepy corridors of the massive vessel.

Over the last two years, Castle had grown accustomed to the biological markers that saturated nearly everywhere he'd visited where organic beings lived, or had once existed. It had taken time and effort, but he had learned how to filter out most of the "white noise" left behind by living beings even in places long abandoned.

But on the collector ship there was nothing.

The deeper inside the ship they went, the more pronounced the empty, silence of the ship became and the deeper his dread grew. He hadn't realized he'd been muttering aloud until Kate's hand clasped his, a brief squeeze strong enough to trigger the sensors on his hardsuit glove. The first sign that anyone living had been aboard came a few hundred meters later when they happened upon a series of large coffin-shaped containers. Without prompting, Mordin stepped closer and scanned them with his omni-tool.

"Same containers as on Horizon… empty" Mordin noted in the quick clipped speech common to salarians, his own disgust clearly evident. "Trapped in these pods completely at the mercy of the collectors. Horrible, despicable!"

They continued deeper into the ship without further comment. No sooner had Castle begun to acclimate to the lack of "voices" in the collector ship's corridors enough to lower his defenses, a door slid open and he was slammed with the shadowed screams of a hundred voices crying out in terror then suddenly silenced.

"Great maker, make me a stone," he groaned as his knees began to buckle, his senses overloaded with the last moments of the dead humans scattered about what had clearly been used as a holding pen.

Kate did her best to support her husband while she surveyed the charnal house they were surrounded with. Over a hundred male and female humans, some collapsed in the center of the room, others along the far bulkhead. Bloody streaks, a macabre testament to their desperate, but doomed attempt to claw their way out before they suffocated.

"Why would the Collectors just leave these bodies lying around?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Likely test subjects from control group, discarded after experiment was over," Mordin replied, his tone coldly clinical in a vain attempt to hide his revulsion before he lapsed into what Kate assumed was salarian profanity.

"They didn't deserve this," Garrus added, clutching his rifle more tightly as he pulled back on the charging lever, clearly eager to use it.

Kate motioned for Mordin and Garrus to collect the colonists' ID tags while she helped Castle steady himself before signaling for the squad to move out. There were no words to convey her anger and there was nothing more they could do for the dead colonists other than record their names.

After putting two more compartments behind them, they found themselves entering what appeared to be either an infirmary or medical bay. Kate scanned the nearby control panels with her omni-tool as Castle and Mordin peered into the open stasis pod.

"It's a Collector," Castle noted, "were they experimenting on one of their own?"

"Jenny," Kate stated into the open comm channel to the Normandy, "I'm uploading data from this terminal. See if you can figure out what the Collectors were up to."

"Data received, analyzing," Jenny stated. "The Collectors were running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."

"Were they looking for similarities?" Kate asked.

"I don't have enough data to hypothesize about their motivations, Captain," Jenny replied. "I do, however have their preliminary results, which reveal something remarkable. The Collectors have a quad-strand genetic structure identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have such a genetic structure: the Protheans."

"My God," Castle muttered under his breath, "The Protheans _didn't_ vanish…"

"They're working for the Reapers now," both he and Beckett said in unison, which caused Garrus to roll his eyes in spite of himself.

"These are no longer Protheans," Jenny corrected. "I have already mapped two thousand alleles to recorded fragments. This collector likely descends from a Prothean colony in the Styx Theta cluster, but its cellular structure shows distinct signs of extensive genetic rewrite. Three fewer chromosomes, reduced chromatin structure, elimination of superfluous 'junk' sequences. The pattern of alteration bears similarities to genetic markers discovered by illegal scans taken of the Citadel Keepers. The reapers apparently re-purposed indoctrinated Protheans to suit their needs in a similar manner."

"You'd think somebody would have picked up on this," Kate noted.

"No one has had an opportunity to study Collector genetic code in this detail." Jenny stated.

"No species should have to suffer this indignity," Mordin spat under his breath.

"Fan out, scan everything," Kate ordered. " Mordin, take whatever samples you can from our friend here before we move out. We have a mission to complete before the Collectors come to salvage this ship."

The boarding party made quick work of their assigned tasks before turning their attention back to the mission. After passing through a few smaller compartments, they entered a massive open space with an uncountable number of stasis pods stacked efficiently on the deck, walls and even affixed to the vaulted ceiling.

"Look at all of those pods," Garrus noted absently. "I wonder how many are full?"

"Too many," Castle and Beckett replied in unison.

"I detect no signs of life in any of the pods in this cargo hold, Captain," Jenny noted of the comms. "It is probable that any victims inside would have died when the ship lost primary power."

"This is unbelievable," Castle whispered hoarsely. "There are so many of these pods they could depopulate every colony in the Terminus Systems and not run out of them."

"Not if we stop them." Kate declared, and then motioned for them to move out. They had a lot of ground yet to cover.

"Captain, you need to hear this," Hastings reported when they were about half way through the cargo hold. "On a hunch, I asked Jenny to do a more detailed analysis on this ship."

"I compared this vessel's E/M profile against data collected from the original Normandy two years ago,." Jenny added. "They are an exact match."

"The same ship dogging us for two years?" Kate replied. "That's way beyond coincidence."

"You're almost to the control panel, Captain, but something doesn't add up here," Hastings urged. "Watch your back."

The next bulkhead opened to reveal a wider space lined with multiple conduits and a single control panel in the center that gave faint signs of activity.

"Well, here we are," Garrus noted.

"Lack of Collectors, alive or dead… problematic," Mordin added. "Suggest caution."

Though the console itself looked completely alien, the interfaces and control surfaces appeared similar to Prothean technology Castle had seen on Ilos and other sites he had investigated throughout the Terminus and other sectors. At Kate's urging, he approached the console and interfaced with it using his omni-tool.

"Jenny," Kate said into the comm channel, "Castle is setting up a bridge between you and this ship's systems. See if you can find anything useful in their data banks."

"Connection established," Jenny reported. "Data mine in progress."

All seemed to be going to plan for several minutes, but without warning, several conduits began to light up and the console they were accessing went dark.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Normandy CIC, Hastings was monitoring the data mine at the command console when one by one the information scrolling on the screens suddenly stopped and warnings flashed on the screen.

"That can't be good," she muttered just before the entire CIC went dark.

* * *

"Shore party to Normandy," Kate snapped into her helmet mic, "Normandy, do you read?"

Kate tried several more times before the connection was finally restored.

"Boarding party, this is Normandy," Hastings finally replied, though the connection was somewhat dodgy.

"What the hell just happened?" Kate demanded. "Report."

"Major power surge," Hastings reported, her back going ramrod straight in spite of herself, "we lost main power briefly."

"The Collector ship's computer attempted to piggy back a trojan horse intrusion program on top of the data I was accessing," Jenny reported, "and attempted to overload the primary power grid. I managed to divert the overload to non-critical systems before I was knocked offline. I have purged the intrusion program and Engineer Zorah's damage control teams are restoring main power and all primary systems."

"Acknowledged," Kate replied.

"Captain," Jenny added, "this was not an accidentally tripped security firewall, this was a trap. The intrusion program was specifically designed to penetrate Alliance- based security protocols. Had I not been installed in Normandy's systems, it would have gone undetected, giving the collector ship root access to all primary systems."

Before Jenny could elaborate, a shuddering vibration shook the deck Kate and her boarding party were standing on, knocking them all off their feet. The section of deck surrounding the console separated from the rest of the deck, rose toward the vaulted ceiling and took them deeper into the massive ship.

"We need help, Jenny," Kate ordered as she and the boarding party struggled to keep their footing on the moving platform.

"I am having trouble maintaining connection," Jenny replied tersely, "there is someone else in the system."

With another violent shudder, the platform connected with a new set of deck-plates, stranding them nearly a kilometer from where they started, on the far side of the Collector vessel from their shuttle.

"Connection reestablished, " Jenny reported as the boarding party once again struggled to their feet. "I have quarantined the intrusion program but I need to finish the download before I can override any further systems."

"Get it done fast, Jenny," Kate retorted.

Before Jenny or anyone else could comment (Castle opened his mouth to, but Kate stopped him with a look) another platform like the one they were standing on swooped past them and settled nearby, disgorging a squad of Collectors.

"Look sharp, we have company!" Garrus shouted, selected armor piercing rounds and turned to open fire, his first shot caught the nearest collector dead center in the creature's forehead, passedclean through and caught the one behind it in the throat. Castle charged his biotics and set loose a shockwave that scattered the remainder of the squad like bowling pins.

Another platform dropped into place nearby and was quickly followed by two more. Mordin drew his submachine gun and opened fire along with the rest of the fire team. The tactical situation did not look good.

"Jenny," Kate snapped into her helmet mic as she triggered a four round burst into an oncoming Collector. "Get us out of here!"

"I am simultaneously fighting Collector firewalls in over eight thousand nodes, Captain," Jenny replied. "I am tasked to capacity. Please continue to hold the platform."

Not long afterward, the Collectors inexplicably stopped coming. Garrus took down the last one on the platform with a well aimed short burst of armor piercing incendiary and silence swiftly followed. While everyone caught their breath and swapped out heat sinks, Jenny's voice crackled over the comms.

"Captain, I have temporarily redirected Collector forces to another sector, but you must manually reestablish my link to the command console."

"I knew you wouldn't let us down, Jenny," Kate commended as she reset the console.

"I always work at optimal capacity," Jenny replied. "Connection reestablished, I now have full control over the platform."

"Did you get what we needed?" Kate asked.

"I have found data that should allow us to successfully navigate the Omega Four mass relay," Jenny replied. "I have also found the distress call that served as the lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual."

"What are you getting at?" Kate asked, unsure if she wanted the answer.

"Turian emergency channels employ secondary encryption protocols specifically designed to prevent an enemy from doing what the Collectors did here." Jenny explained. Kate turned to Garrus who confirmed this with a nod of his head. "The secondary encryption is present, but corrupted in the message. It is not possible for the Illusive Man to believe the distress call was genuine."

"How can you be so sure?" Kate asked.

"I discovered the anomaly using standard Cerberus detection protocols," Jenny replied. "He wrote them."

"You mean he knew this was a trap?" Kate asked incredulously. "Why would he send us into trap?"

"That son of a bitch sent us right into Collector hands," Garrus muttered in anger, "and here I thought I'd had my quota of betrayal and attempted murder for this year."

"Captain we've got a more immediate problem," Hastings interrupted over the comm channel. "The Collector ship is powering up. You need to get back to the shuttle before their weapons come on-line."

"I do not have full control of the Collector ship's systems," Jenny supplied as the platform lifted from the deck and took them back the way they came. "They have cut off the route you took before and are attempting to lock me out of the system. I will do what I can to delay them. Sending new coordinates for shuttle extraction."

"Come on," Kate commanded as soon as the platform affixed itself once more to the deck, grateful at least that they would not have to pass through the section with the dead colonists, if only to spare her husband more injury to his psyche, she needed him frosty for the fight to come. "Let's move!"

"I have opened a door on the far side of the corridor and sealed the one behind you," Jenny noted. "as well as every compartment within my control between your location and the shuttle bay. The Collectors will have to manually open compartments one at a time which should prevent them from massing an overwhelming force against you."

Jenny's assessment was proven to be accurate as the boarding party faced only sporadic resistance for most of their retreat toward the shuttle. It quickly became apparent, however that the Collectors had switched tactics and sought to delay them while the ship powered up. No sooner had they cleared the last compartment leading directly to the shuttle bay, a security door slammed closed, blocking their path.

"Jenny, we have a problem," Kate snapped into the comm channel.

"A temporary setback on firewall three-two-one-seven," Jenny replied. "Rerouting commands through firewall seven-one-six-four."

Moments later another door slid open.

"I have successfully opened a maintenance hatch on the opposite wall and will keep it open as long as possible."

The boarding party rushed through with little urging then took a maintenance ramp which took them up two levels, giving them a panoramic view of the shuttle bay at the bottom of what appeared to be a cargo transfer ramp.

"Down there!" Castle shouted, "It's where we came in!"

"Along with a lot of our new friends," Garrus quipped, noting three Collectors and a large contingent of husks moving up the ramp to meet them.

"Captain," Hastings broke in on the comm channel, "I hate to rush you, but you might want to double-time it before their weapons come online and tear the Normandy in half."

Garrus swapped out for his sniper rifle, selected antipersonnel rounds and took careful aim at the Collector keeping the husks organized. He took a breath, let it out slowly and gently squeezed the trigger. The rifle barked three times in quick succession: The first round disrupted the Collector's barriers, the second punched through its armored helmet and the third round's explosive tip blew its head apart like an overripe melon.

Before the doomed Collector's body hit the deck, Castle's surged forward in full biotic charge, scattering the oncoming husks to either side of him and slammed bodily into the next closest Collector sending it careening into the hull of the shuttle, then sprawling to the deck. Castle put the creature and its stunned cohort down with shotgun blasts to the head.

He swapped out for his assault rifle and opened up on the remaining husks from his flanking position while the others scrambled down the ramp to reach the shuttle.

"We're out of time, Captain," Hastings urged, "we have to go!"

"You heard the lady, boys," Kate bellowed as the shuttle's hatch opened and one by one they scrambled to get aboard. "We are leaving!"

* * *

When the hatch was dogged shut, Kate pounded on the bulkhead leading to the cockpit. Half a second later, the shuttle lifted and banked hard, barely squeezing through the bay doors before they slammed shut. After a tense shuttle ride followed by an emergency landing, Kate burst from the lift into the CIC and scrambled headlong for the cockpit with Castle hard on her heels.

"Strap in, people," Ryan bellowed, then muttered under his breath. "Gonna make 'em work for it this time."

The Normandy banked and juked hard as the Collector ship opened fire with its primary weapon. The few shots that burned close glanced off the cyclonic barriers, but just like with the original Normandy, the massive vessel began to find the range.

"I can't dodge this guy forever, Jenny, get me an FTL vector!" Ryan snapped.

"Please specify a destination, Mr. Ryan," Jenny replied.

"Anywhere that isn't here," Kate commanded.

"FTL destination computed," Jenny responded, "transferring coordinates to CIC"

"Jump!" Kate shouted, and the Normandy jumped to FTL just before the Collector ship could open fire.

"There is a QEC call coming in from the Illusive Man, Captain, "Jenny noted while everyone caught their breath.

"I'm pretty sure you've got a word or two to say to him, too," Castle added.

* * *

"Beckett," Mason Wood offered without preamble once the QEC connection had been established, clearly excited, "Jenny was able to extract some interesting data before the Collector ship's AI cut the data feed."

"Cut the act," Kate snarled back at him. "You set us up and you better have a damned good reason for it."

"We needed information on the Omega Four relay," Wood replied. "Getting it required direct access to Collector data. It was too good an opportunity to pass up."

"Agreed," Kate acquiesced grudgingly, "but I don't like surprises, especially when it's my ass on the firing line."

"I put you and your crew at risk, yes," Wood replied. "But without that data, we don't reach the collector home world and all of humanity might as well be dead. Yes, I knew it was a trap, but I was confident in your abilities. Not to mention, there was no way the Collectors could have anticipated Jenny. I needed them to believe they had the upper hand, telling you could have tipped them off in any number of ways."

"Just tell me it was worth the trouble," Kate grumbled.

"It was," Wood replied. "Jenny confirmed my worst suspicion: Reaper and Collector ships use an advanced "Identify friend or foe" system that the relay system recognizes. If we want to access the Omega Four relay, we'll need to get our hands on one, preferably without the Collectors knowing we have it."

"Do you have any leads on how to acquire one?" Kate asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Wood replied after taking a leisurely sip from his glass of bourbon. "An alliance science team recently proved that the great rift on the planet Klendagon was formed by a glancing blow from a mass accelerator weapon. A very _old_ mass accelerator weapon. I sent a team to find either the weapon, or its target. They found both."

Wood took a drag on his cigarette and another sip of his bourbon while he waited for Kate to digest the information.

"The weapon was defunct but it helped the science team plot the flight path to the intended target: A thirty seven million year old derelict reaper. The exploratory team found it in the gravity well of a brown dwarf."

"I saw what Sovereign did to the citadel fleet," Kate interjected. "Hard to imagine something powerful enough to bring one down with one shot."

"This vessel is a relic from a battle waged before mammals took their first steps on earth," Wood noted before he continued. "Other than the weapon itself, there's no trace of the species that took the shot. Perhaps it was their one moment of defiance before being wiped out. The reaper itself has a mass effect field powerful enough to maintain a stable orbit of the brown dwarf, likely an automatic response to the external threat, but I wouldn't call it safe."

"The only reason I believe you is because I doubt you'd repeat yourself so soon," Kate admonished.

"The derelict reaper is no less of a risk," Wood pointed out. "All contact with Dr. Chandana's team was lost two days after they boarded. Subsequent reconnaissance scans couldn't reveal any clues and at the time it was too risky to commit further resources. But now, we need that IFF. I'll forward the coordinates to your CIC, but I would suggest waiting to go there until you are completely ready to hit the Omega Four relay."

"Understood," Kate replied.

"I might also suggest you tell your people that I didn't risk their lives unnecessarily," Wood added before closing the channel. "It might make things easier going forward."

Once the conference room was fully restored, Kate keyed the intercom.

"Hastings, have the command crew assemble in the conference room. We have a lot to discuss."

* * *

 **Fifteen minutes later**

"So," Garrus deadpanned, "the Illusive Man didn't sell us out. Could've fooled me."

"Lied to us, used us," Mordin added, clearly unimpressed, "needed access to collector database. Necessary risk, but morally problematic."

"He tries something like that again," Kate stated coldly, glaring directly at Miranda, "and the Collectors will be the least of his problems."

Miranda opened her mouth to retort, but the full force of Kate's death glare made the Cerberus operative think better of defending the Illusive Man.

"I have been analyzing the data recovered and determined the approximate location of the Collector home-world based upon their navigational data," Jenny interjected, replacing the wireframe model of the Normandy with a three dimensional star map, with a location highlighted.

"Wait a moment," Miranda muttered, confused, "this can't be right."

"My calculations are accurate," Jenny replied. "The Collector home world is located in the galactic core."

"That can't be," Miranda repeated. "The galactic core is densely packed with black holes and exploding suns, there couldn't possibly be a habitable planet there."

"Could be an artificial construction," Mordin conjectured. "Space station protected by protected by powerful mass effect fields and radiation shields."

"Not even the Collectors could have technology that advanced," Hastings stated.

"The Collectors are just indoctrinated servants of our real enemy: the Reapers," Castle added, pushing off from the far wall, where he'd retreated away from everyone else. He'd been unusually quiet up to this point, the horrors he'd been exposed to on the Collector ship still fresh in his mind. "I think we've all seen what their masters are capable of. They built the mass relays and the Citadel. Who's to say they can't build a space station surrounded by black holes?"

"No wonder nobody's ever come back through the Omega Four mass relay," Hastings muttered softly.

"The logical conclusion" Jenny explained, "is that a small safe zone exists on the far side of the relay where ships can survive. Standard relay transit protocols would not allow for safe transit, as drift of several thousand kilometers is common. This would be fatal in the galactic core. The reaper IFF must trigger the relay to employ more advanced, encrypted transit protocols."

"Just because we can follow the Collectors through to their base, doesn't mean we're ready to take them out. I don't want to go after the IFF until all systems are fully repaired and I'm sure we're ready to get it done."

"Sooner or later we're gonna need that IFF." Garrus pointed out. "Why wait?"

"It's a derelict Reaper," Miranda pointed out, "we have no idea what's waiting for us."

"Not to mention," Kate added, once again staring Miranda down, "I'm not sure I necessarily trust Intel from your boss."

"It's your call," Garrus replied, "whatever you decide, we're with you."

"All right people, dismissed," Kate concluded, unable to help the concerned glance at her husband, who still looked pale and withdrawn. "Hastings keep me up to date on the repairs."

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** Sorry this took so long. Things were a lot more chaotic over my Christmas break than I thought they would be, which left little room for writing. Only a few more chapters to go in part two.**_


	18. Subject Zero

**Chapter Eighteen  
Subject Zero**

* * *

" _So be it  
Threaten no more  
To secure peace is to prepare for war  
So be it  
Settle the score  
Touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore..."  
_Metallica: "Don't Tread On me"

* * *

 **Two Days Later**

The FTL coordinates Jenny had plotted for their escape route had dropped the Normandy into a system with little if any notable features. There were no habitable planets and a medium, though unremarkable gas giant barely large enough to collect Helium3 for fuel and a few small rocky moons on which to discharge the drive core while Tali's damage control teams performed the diagnostics and necessary repairs to the systems compromised by the Collector AI's intrusion attempt.

Unbeknownst to the Cerberus personnel aboard, especially Miranda, Tali took the opportunity to install a few failsafes of her own while Jenny was shut down for a full internal diagnostic cycle. As a quarian engineer of exceptional talent even among her own people, she knew a thing or two about overriding computer systems and deceiving AI.

Should Beckett give the word, with a few keystrokes on her omni-tool she would be able to physically isolate Jenny, override all Cerberus internal and external command codes and take direct control of the ship. It was a contingency plan she had been preparing for ever since she first came aboard, but she'd made it a higher priority after the Illusive Man's most recent deception. If Jenny put up a fight… well she had contingencies in place for that, too. She hadn't sent her father _everything_ she'd found in geth space.

The only other distinguishing factor about their current location was their proximity to the Nubian expanse where Cerberus's Teltin facility was located on the planet Pragia. Though Kate firmly believed that planting a "big fucking bomb" to destroy a Cerberus outpost that had been abandoned for nearly thirty years to be of dubious value to their mission against the Collectors, it was important to Jack and by extension important to Castle. She knew that his nightmares had only become worse in the days after their narrow escape from the collector vessel and was more than okay with authorizing a "milk run" to test the ship's newly repaired subsystems.

The only thing she was truly surprised about was that Cerberus hadn't destroyed the facility years ago to conceal what was being done there if even half of Jack's story was accurate.

* * *

One short FTL jump later and the Normandy was in orbit, running silent. She could remain on station for several days before venting the heat sinks so she ordered Tali and Hastings to perform a level one diagnostic of the computer systems effected by the Collector ship's cyber attack and the subsequent overload that Jenny had shunted to non-critical systems. The proximity to Batarian controlled space was the only thing that made her nervous about the operation. With the IES online and passive sensors on full alert she felt better about their chances.

Though Jack seemed initially overjoyed at the prospect of her chance to get her revenge on the facility that had stolen her childhood, the closer the shuttle got to it, the more anxious and agitated she seemed to become.

"I forgot how much I hate this place," Jack blurted out, her eyes seemingly plastered to the viewport. "See the landing pad? Has to be on the roof or the vegetation would overgrow it in a few hours."

"Captain Beckett," Jenny reported over the comms, "I am picking up thermal signatures everywhere, except at your landing zone."

"Something is definitely distorting the sensors," Hastings added, "I can barely get a reading on the outline of the building with LIDAR. But not so much as a thermal reading inside of it."

"This was a secret Cerberus facility," Miranda noted, sitting uncomfortably as far away from Jack as she could get in the cramped shuttle. "This deep in Batarian Space they would have active and passive countermeasures in place to prevent attracting attention."

"Yeah," Jack snorted, "they built their equipment to last… assholes."

As the shuttle turned on it's final approach vector, Jack seemed to get even more agitated.

"It was a mistake coming back here," Jack hissed shakily. Though she tried to hide it, Castle could practically feel the unease radiating off of her.

"Breathe Jack," Castle offered compassionately,. "you aren't doing this alone. It'll be okay."

"I'm fine!" Jack snapped at him, which rankled Kate a little to hear, but was obviously the response her husband was going for, before she continued nervously. "Okay… let's get on the ground."

The Kodiak flared and swung around, hovering momentarily over the long unused landing pad on the roof of the building, it's articulated thrust quads sending debris scattering in every direction, before settling to the deck.

Castle's first impression upon setting foot on the deck was how dismal the planet looked. He'd done some background research not long after Jack had told him about it. Pragia had originally been a batarian colony the Hegemony had planned to be their empire's breadbasket shortly after claiming the lush world one hundred years ago.

To that end, they'd introduced multiple non-native, industrially engineered plant species designed to take full advantage of Pragia's fertile volcanic soil for maximum food production. These plants swiftly cross pollinated with native species, synergized with Pragia's natural geothermal conditions and chemotropic microbes and after initial success, soon began to run amok.

Mutant strains of both poisonous and carnivorous plants arose that overran the planet's meager animal species within days and the scattered agricultural colonies shortly thereafter. The batarians quickly abandoned what had been a garden world. Alliance ecologists that investigated the planet after the First Contact War predicted the out of control plant growth would fully exhaust Pragia's soil in less than four hundred years.

Though the world was a complete ecological disaster that no colonial expedition in their right mind would want to make home, clearly Cerberus had found the place an ideal location for illegal biotics research they wanted to keep out of the public eye. Not even the Hegemony would go anywhere near it.

No sooner had Jack emerged from the shuttle, she made it readily apparent how apprehensive she was to be back, her body language radiating fear and paranoia which she tried to disguise as anger.

"Let's just get in there and plant the bomb in my cell," she spat angrily, "I wanna watch this place burn."

Kate nodded at Miranda who swiftly bypassed the door seals and got them inside out of the rain.

"I never saw this room," Jack noted quietly, taking in the empty cargo containers lining the walls. "I think they brought new kids in these containers. They were messed up and starving, but they were alive… usually."

Castle took point and lead them deeper into the facility, Jack right on his heels, more unsure of herself than any of them had ever seen her. He manually pushed open an office door to find a working console, which flared to life almost as soon as he walked up to it.

"Place still has power," Miranda noted, "fusion reactor in the basement sublevels must still be running."

After a few keystrokes, an audio log began to play.

" _The Illusive Man requested operation logs again,"_ a man's voice stated, _"he's getting suspicious."_

" _When we get results,"_ another man replied, _"he won't care what we did, but if he knew…"_

" _He won't find out,"_ the first man said, before Castle cut it off in disgust, downloading the logs onto his omni-tool.

"It sounds like this facility went rogue," Miranda offered.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Jack shot back. "He didn't say what they were hiding from the Illusive Man.

They left the small office and passed through the wreckage of what had once been a security checkpoint.

"I remember escaping to this room… fighting here," Jack reminisced quietly, "I saw sunlight coming through cracks in the ceiling, only a half dead guard between me and freedom. He was begging for his life, swearing up and down he was only following orders."

After passing through the shattered security cordon, they found themselves in a large coutyard, much of it clearly as an exercise yard. At it's center was the remains of a circle made with concrete pilings, many now tipped over.

"This looks like an arena." Kate muttered.

"That's right," Jack said. "They used to stage fights here… pit me against other kids. I loved it, the only time I was ever allowed out of my cell."

"Did other children die in these fights?" Castle asked.

"I was a kid, filled with drugs," Jack replied, "I got shocked when I hesitated. Narcotics flooded my veins when I attacked."

"They rewarded you for attacking?" Castle asked, shocked.

"I still get warm feelings during a fight," Jack replied.

"What the hell was wrong with those people?" Kate interjected angrily, not sure if she was speaking to Jack, or Miranda.

"I don't know," Jack replied, her body language hovering between anger and fear, "most of em are dead so it doesn't really matter anymore."

"How often did they stage these… fights?" Castle asked through gritted teeth.

"I lost track after a while. I was locked in a cell my whole life… sometimes they took me out and made me fight. Most of the time I was hopped up on fuck knows how many drugs and… other stuff. Time gets funny in a cell."

"What were they studying?"

"Hell if I know," Jack replied. "Maybe that's how they got their kicks. I never understood half of what they did here."

Jack led them further into the facility until they reached a security checkpoint. Though there were scorch marks on the walls and floor, the communications console was intact, a red light flashing. Miranda used her omni-tool to input her Cerberus access codes that disabled the security encryption and a recorded message began to play.

" _Security officer Zemki, Teltin Facility. The subjects are out of their cells and tearing the place apart! Subject Zero is gonna get loose, I need permission to terminate. I repeat, permission to terminate!"_

" _All subjects except Zero are expendable. Keep her alive at all costs."_

" _Understood, I'll begin the…"_

"That's not right," Jack muttered, cutting off the recording, confused, "I broke out of my cell when my guards disappeared. _I_ started that riot."

"There was clearly something else going on that you didn't see," Kate noted. "Something that drew your guards away."

"The other kids attacked me," Jack snapped more angrily than she intended, " the _guards_ attacked me, the automated systems attacked me, that doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation!"

Jack stormed away toward a stairwell that she barely recalled being there, running on anger and automatic pilot. Castle and Beckett shrugged at each other and reluctantly followed. Nobody noticed that Miranda had remained behind and restarted the recording.

" _All subjects except Zero are expendable. Keep Zero alive at all costs."_

Despite the relative youth of the voice on the recording, she could pick her father's voice out of a crowd anywhere. He'd been a Cerberus supporter for years so she should not have been surprised to learn of his involvement with this project, but the idea that she and Jack might not be so far apart in their origins shook her to the core. She began to wonder for the first time since she grabbed Oriana and ran, just how _varied_ the amalgam of female sources that went into her DNA actually was.

"Hey Miranda," Beckett called out, shaking her from her reverie, "you coming?"

"Yeah," she replied, shutting the recording off again and hurrying to catch up, "just backing up data."

As the group reached the top of the stairs, Castle noted the barely legible sign that pointed down the stairs reading "subject dormitories" as they reached the bottom, Jack stopped, pointing her shotgun at a dead animal at her feet.

"This place is supposed to be empty," she growled. "Who the fuck shot that varren? It's a fresh kill."

"Charge and lock people," Kate commanded, her rifle coming off her shoulder, Castle swiftly following suit. "We might not be alone down here."

They passed through a corridor that seemed little more than a series of prison cells. Each small six-by-eight room had four bunks set into the wall. The third one they checked, Castle found a small stuffed animal that looked almost exactly like the "Monkey Bunkey" that Alexis used to carry everywhere when she was little and still had pride of place on a shelf in her dorm at the Grissom Academy.

"They kept _children_ here?" he growled angrily, setting the small stuffed animal gently back on the bunk where he'd found it, thankful for the heavy gloves of his hard suit. The set of his shoulders clearly betrayed his growing rage as he pulled back the charging lever on his rifle.

After passing through the dormitories, they found themselves entering what could only be described as a morgue, with row upon row of metal drawers set into the walls and an autopsy table that made both Castle and Beckett cringe in spite of themselves.

"This is supposed to be a small facility," Jack hissed. "Why would they need such a large morgue?"

"A lot of children died here," Miranda replied sullenly, still processing the implications of the Teltin Facility on her own creation. "Even then they were part of the experiment."

"Bullshit!" Jack exclaimed angrily, "I had the worst of it and I made it out alive!"

Jack stormed off again, intent on an open courtyard which apparently served as recreation area for the other subjects given the damaged playground equipment, a large mirror dominated the far wall.

"This…" Jack began, her fingertips brushing the mirror, then pulled back as if burned, words failing her as realization dawned. "It's a two-way mirror? My cell is on the other side. I could see all of the other kids playing out here. I screamed at them for hours and they always ignored me."

"According to the building plans I downloaded at that last console," Miranda noted as she checked her omni-tool, "this entire floor is heavily soundproofed. They never heard you, apparently by design. Probably part of your conditioning."

Jack glared at Miranda, but turned away without comment, not wanting to admit she'd come to the same conclusion. Miranda couldn't meet Jack's eyes though, her mind reeling with the similarities to her own upbringing, her father's voice on that recording still fresh in her mind. She'd never been here – or even heard of the place before but too much of Jack's description of what had been done to her - both physically and psychologically - was jarringly… familiar.

Jack led them past the shattered security checkpoint, around a corner and down a corridor. Though the door at the end of the hallway was clearly blasted outward she seemed hesitant… almost afraid to go inside.

"I must have come through here when I boke out," she offered shakily, "but I don't remember it."

Castle stepped around her to lead the way inside room to find little but a chair with full immobilization restraints. (including head and neck) The sight of it clearly unnerved Jack.

"This is a bad place… _the_ bad place…" she whispered. The quietest Castle had ever heard her speak, her non-tatooed skin nearly pure white.

Though Jack was likely the least clingy person Kate had ever met, herself included, Kate noted that Jack had nearly plastered herself to Castle's side. What that chair might have been used for that would leave somebody like Jack trembling in fear made her shiver a little herself. Even Miranda seemed taken aback, though she wasted little time finding the lab's log console.

" _Entry ten-fifty-one, Teltin Facility:"_ the lead researcher recorded. _"The latest iteration of PergNim went poorly. Subjects one, four, and six died. No biotic change in the survivors. We lowered the core temperatures of the surviving subjects but no biotically beneficial reactions occurred. As a result, all remaining test subjects died of hypothermia. We'll not try either of those on Subject Zero. I hope our supply of biotic-potential subjects hold up. We are going through them fast. Operator Lawson is not pleased with our lack of progress."_

"This is bullshit!" Jack shouted angrily, for the moment not noticing the name of the project lead. "They weren't experimenting on the other kids for my safety!"

"Apparently they were," Castle replied, barely keeping his composure he was so angry, "not because they cared about you, but because you were their primary lab animal. You can't help what they did to the others."

"You don't get it," Jack explained angrily, her entire worldview now in doubt even in her own head. "I survived this place because I was tougher than the rest. That's who I am!"

" _It's all fallen to pieces,"_ the recording resumed. _"The other test subjects are loose and tearing the place apart and Zero is loose. I'm calling blank slate on this project and shutting down the facility. My recommendation: infiltrate and piggyback onto the Alliance Ascension program. Hopefully, that will…"_

There is a sudden and furious hammering off camera then the shriek of rending metal as the door gave way.

" _Who are?"_ the man challenged, then his eyes widened in recognition. _"Zero… wait!"_

The man was lifted from the deck then thrown violently out of frame, his agonized screams stopped suddenly with the crunch of shattering bone. His face was quickly replaced on camera by a ten year old girl with short auburn hair in a bob cut, dark energy limning her entire body a brilliant shade of blue. Her eyes were glazed over in a rage that Castle thought had no place on a child so young. Shortly after she disappeared from the frame, they could hear the sound of another door being wrenched from its housing before the recording cut out.

"Castle!" Jack exclaimed, clinging to his combat harness as if it was a lifeline, "They started up somewhere else!"

"Ascension is an Alliance program for biotic children at the Grissom Academy," Castle replied as soothingly as he could. "My daughter Alexis is in that program. They don't torture children there."

"Cerberus tried to infiltrate the program about fifteen or twenty years ago," Kate added, "but Roy and his partner David Anderson stopped them cold back when they were attached to Ambassador Goyle's office."

"A lot of this… isn't what I remember," Jack admitted grudgingly.

"There was a lot going on that you had no way to know about, because they wanted you to hate the other kids," Castle offered. "Not to mention a lot of little events that conspired to give you the chance to escape."

"I was a young kid, dumb," Jack spat angrily through clenched teeth." Doped up drugs and kept in the dark. I keep my eyes open now and I always shoot first. We're getting close to my cell… the place I come from. Let's rig this hellhole to blow and get the fuck out of here."

A little further down the hall they saw a door standing open. Jack nodded at Castle to indicate it was the right room and when they stepped inside there was a man at least ten years older than Castle standing in the middle of it. He was well dressed, but his expression was haggard, like he too had seen to much.

"Who the fuck are you?" Jack demanded.

"My name is Aresh, welcome to my childhood home," The man said, his tone and intonation the clear products of a good education. "I know who you are though, Subject Zero. So many years have gone by, I thought I was the only survivor."

"My name is _Jack_ ," she insisted, drawing her hand cannon and pointing it at him, the barrel shaking slightly. "How the hell do _you_ know me?"

"We all knew who you were… _Jack_ ," he replied, his eyes intent on something only he could see. "The white coats inflicted horrors on all of us so their experiments wouldn't kill you. _You_ were the question and I'm still looking for answers."

"Looks like you weren't the only one pulled back here, Jack," Castle noted.

"I spent forty years trying to forget this place," Aresh said, "turns out my family was wealthy, so when I got back to the world, I got the best remedial education money could buy. No matter where I went, or how hard I tried, a place like this… it remembers you. Follows you around. I hired some mercenaries about a solar year ago and came back for answers. I need to find out what they knew. How to unlock true biotic potential in humans. I'm restarting the Teltin facility."

"I wanted a hole in the ground," Jack hissed at Castle as she moved closer to Aresh, "He's trying to _justify_ what happened here by using it!"

"You'd do this all over again to more children?" Kate demanded angrily. "Wasn't this forced on you?"

"Some of us were bought from poor families on Earth or kidnapped from the outer colonies," Aresh replied, his eyes not wavering from Jack. "Most of us ended up here like I did… batarian pirates. They did terrible things to us, even the really little kids. They must have had a good reason… they must have."

"We could blow this place to hell, but that still leaves him," Kate stated. "What do we do with another you?"

"Just leave me here," Aresh interrupted, "this is where I belong."

"Fuck that!" Jack replied, enraged, her biotics flaring as she shoved Aresh to his knees and brought her pistol to his head. "

"Jack," Castle pleaded, "he's trapped in his past just like you are."

"He wants to restart this place!" Jack snapped back, but her pistol began to waver. "He needs to die."

"He's crazy if he thinks he can do that," Castle replied calmly, "especially after we blow it to hell. Cerberus had nearly unlimited funds when they built this place. He won't. Your past doesn't have to control you."

Jack stood frozen, her gun hand shaking as her thoughts wavered about what to do.

"Fuck!" she shouted angrily, lowering her gun before she shoved him toward the door. "Get out of here… go! I see you again and I'll blow your _fucking_ brains out!"

"He's not worth it Jack," Kate offered. "You did the right thing."

"Maybe," Jack muttered sullenly, watching the man disappear out the door and around the corner. "This place was my whole world once, give me a minute to look around."

Castle nodded at his wife, who began removing the components of the communications beacon from her pack. With Miranda's help she began setting it up, leaving Castle free to talk with Jack, who seemed to want him to hear what she had to say.

"Nothing's changed, but everything's different." Jack noted quietly, indicating the small child's bed bolted to the floor in the corner of the room near the two way mirror.

"Sometimes I dream I'm back in this bed being tortured," she whispered as if ashamed of it, "I would tie the sheets around my wrists and pretend to rip them off. I want to stop coming back here."

Jack looked up at the two way mirror with a panoramic view of the playground outside. "I thought that room out there was whole rest of the world. I'd pound and yell… it never did any good."

Jack turned and indicated the desk where Kate and Miranda were setting up the comm beacon across the room from them. "I used that table for everything, it was like my best friend. I'd crawl under it to cry… I was pathetic."

When Kate and Miranda indicated the beacon was ready and transmitting on a Cerberus recognition signal the facility computer recognized and allowed through the jamming field, they filed out of the room, but jack stopped near a scorch mark on the wall.

"See the scarring on the wall here?" Jack said, pointing at it. "This is where I killed my first man. One of the guards tried to stop me from getting out. Instead, I stopped him. Okay, no more wallowing, let's get out of here and blow this place to hell."

Twenty minutes later, they were back on the shuttle. As it pulled away from the rooftop and gained altitude, Kate got on the comms.

"Normandy, this is the Captain. Beacon is set and you are weapons free."

* * *

In the CIC, Hastings stepped closer to the weapons station.

"Action stations!" she commanded. "Activate the Thannix Cannon. Stand ready for single barrel asset denial fire. Mr, Ryan, you are cleared to begin intra-orbit maneuvers to bring us to bear."

Under Ryan's deft hands at the controls, the Normandy rotated in orbit, then flipped end over end until her bow was pointed at the surface, synched in orbit over the Cerberus facility.

"Relative speed to target is now zero." The LIDAR officer reported.

"Comm beacon signal received," the weapons officer reported. "Firing solution computed and locked into fire control computer."

"Barrel one powered and loaded," Garrus reported from the weapons bay as a single thirty millimeter ferrous slug slid silently into the breach.

"Ground party's shuttle has gone suborbital." The LIDAR officer reported, receiving a nod from Hastings.

"Fire."

No sooner had the weapons officer thumbed the firing control at Hastings' command, the Thannix cannon superheated the ferrous slug and launched the liquid metal from the barrel at one tenth the speed of light.

Within a millisecond, it struck the building at near relativistic speed, imparting kinetic force ten times more powerful than the bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 combined.

Faster than the eye could follow, the hypervelocity molten projectile penetrated each of the building's twenty floors, setting off a chain reaction of explosions that caused each floor to pancake into the one below it until it breached the facility's fusion reactor three stories below ground.

The fusion reactor detonated, causing a nuclear explosion that reduced any remnants of the building to powder in the blink of an eye and the Teltin Facility ceased to exist, leaving only a mushroom cloud to mark its place.

As soon as the shuttle was safely aboard, the Normandy departed orbit and went to FTL while decontamination teams set to work to clear the landing party to disembark. Though outwardly content with the turn of events, Jack curled in on herself in her seat, uncharacteristically silent during decontamination procedures. She was out of her seat and fled the shuttle bay as soon has they were cleared to leave.

Castle wanted to follow to make sure she was okay, but Kate's hand on his shoulder held him in place. The single glance that passed between them was the only communication they required. He may be the only person aboard the ship that Jack even remotely trusted, but she had a lot to process. With a nod, Castle understood that Jack would come to him if, or when she was ready.

Castle shared the lift quietly with his wife as far as the Crew Deck where he and Miranda got off. She too, seemed to have a lot on her mind and the uncomfortable silence in the lift spoke volumes. Miranda retreated to her office near the mess hall and he slipped into the small XO office cubicle. For the time being, he had reports to write, some of them not for Kate's, or the Illusive Man's eyes.

He hated keeping secrets from her, but the oath he swore to the Alliance Navy was not one he took lightly. Abandoned or not, they had - for all intents and purposes - nuked a planet in Batarian Space and Councilor Montgomery would need to be informed in case there was any political fallout.

* * *

 **Two days later**

Once the Normandy was out of Batarian Space, the entire crew seemed to relax and breathe a collective sigh of relief, though it did not take long before that peace and quiet was shattered as Kate was going off watch in the CIC.

"Captain Beckett, your presence is required in Operator Lawson's office," Jenny stated over the intercom.

Kate approached the door and as it started to slide open the sound of an altercation could be heard.

"Touch me and I will smear the walls with you, bitch!" Jack shouted and Beckett was forced to duck a chair flying across the room. Jack and Miranda were faced off against each other, both of them limned with the bluish tint of charged biotics.

"Both of you, stand _down,_ " Kate bellowed like a drill sergeant, "Right now!"

The sudden shout seemed to put a ramrod down both of their spines and the two women disengaged.

"The cheerleader here refuses to admit that what Cerberus did to me was wrong!" Jack complained, loudly.

"It wasn't Cerberus, not really," Miranda shot back icily, "But clearly _you_ were a mistake."

"That's it, both of you," Kate commanded, "Our mission is too important for you two to be tearing out the ship's bulkheads. _If_ we survive, you can tear each other apart for all I care, but until then, I want the two of you to remain a deck apart at all times!"

"Oh, she'll survive," Jack promised coldly, her eyes boring straight though her at Miranda. "I'll make sure of it. When this is all over, I'm gonna tear her apart myself."

Once Kate was certain that her orders would be obeyed by both women concerned, and that Jack was on her way back to her cargo deck hidey hole, she departed Miranda's office. Once the lift doors were closed she leaned heavily against the back wall and sighed.

"I'm getting too old for this shit."

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note: I always found this particular mission a little unsatisfying, mostly because I would rarely have enough paragon to get the "good guy" option so I had to settle for the renegade one to keep both Miranda and Jack's loyalty for the endgame. I also felt that Jack should have been more incredulous that a washed up reject who could barely afford the mercs he'd hired could possibly restart such an expensive facility. I kept the renegade option, but made Aresh's stated goal a bit more believable. Not to mention connecting the dots a bit more firmly between Jack and Miranda.**_


End file.
